After nearly five years of intense and incessant bickering, and exchange of verbal blows, Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday reconciled their differences to formalise an alliance in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the BJP will contest 25 seats in the Lok Sabha elections while the Shiv Sena will contest 23 seats. For the assembly elections in October, both parties will contest equal number of seats after deciding the seat share with other allies.
The Shiv Sena has clearly emerged victorious in the seat sharing discussion. The BJP has been forced to accept most of its demands even as Shiv Sena did climb down from the rhetoric that it will never have any pre-electoral alliance. In 2014, the Shiv Sena had contested 22 seats. This time around, it has bagged one more seat, that of Palghar. The Shiv Sena also forced the BJP to accept its demand that both the parties should contest equal number of seats in the assembly elections. Both the parties had snapped ties ahead of the assembly elections in 2014 and the BJP had won 122 seats whereas Shiv Sena had won 63.
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Fadnavis said that this was a very happy day for the activists of both the BJP and the Shiv Sena as two parties with common nationalist ideology had once again come together for a larger good of farmers and commoners.
Speaking on the occasion, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said that both parties had reached a point where they had to decide whether they wish to hand over reins of governance to the same forces whom they have fought tooth and nail for the last five decades.
“Should we allow misunderstanding to affect our relations? I will not say that; let us forget whatever happened in the last five years. On the contrary, we must learn from the last five years and never allow mistrust to grow. This is a new beginning for both parties and we will go ahead with clean and clear minds and no malice in our hearts," said Thackeray.
BJP president Amit Shah said that the Shiv Sena was its oldest ally. “It has been with us in our good times, it has helped us in our bad times. Whatever grudges we had against one another have been cleared. We will now fight shoulder to shoulder and win 45 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra,” said Shah.
In addition to a favourable seat sharing agreement, the Shiv Sena scored another victory as Fadnavis announced that the proposed mega oil refinery at Nanar in Ratnagiri district will be relocated to another site where there is no opposition from local villagers. The Shiv Sena had strongly supported the locals in 17 villages where the refinery was proposed to come up. “I thank the chief minister for his announcement regarding Nanar refinery. We were never opposed to the refinery or any industrial project. We were just solidly supporting the local community which was against the project. The project can be relocated to any place where there is no local opposition,” said Thackeray.