Mumbai: Crisis deepened in the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra on Sunday after Uddhav Thackeray proposed a fresh seat-sharing formula and his ally did not appear keen to latch on to the offer.
Soon after Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray put the ball in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) court to save the 25-year-old alliance while addressing workers at a party meet in Maharashtra, the BJP held a counter-conference of sorts and highlighted that it had made enough sacrifices already.
"We sacrificed our Lok Sabha sests for Sena, but we didn't get any additional assembly seat in exchange," said BJP's Eknath Khadse.
Taking a dig at Uddhav's move to announce his new offer in public, his party colleague, Vinod Tawde, said, "There is no final formula in alliance till it is on." Tawde also said the BJP wanted to propose its new formula in person.
In reaction to Uddhav's remark that his new offer was a last-ditch effort to save the alliance, he added there should be no last formula if the alliance had to be maintained.
Earlier in the day, the Sena offered the BJP 119 and other small parties in the coalition 18 of the 288 seats in the politically crucial state, while keeping 151 seats for itself.
"I want power and I will get it at any cost," Uddhav, who had recently made his ambition for the chief minister's post clear, said at a party meet in Mumbai.
"We never wanted to grab power for personal benefit which is why this alliance lasted for 25 years," he added, stressing this is "my last effort to save the alliance with BJP".
There were reports on Saturday that the Sena had proposed to give the BJP 126 seats - but only if nine of these were given to small allies. The Sena wanted to keep 155 and give seven seats to another ally, Swabhimani Paksha.
The BJP, however, had insisted on 130 seats - five less than its earlier demand. It had asked the Sena to come down to 140 seats and distribute the remaining 18 between four other allies. The BJP's demand is based on the results of the April-May Lok Sabha polls, when it won 23 and the Sena 18 of the 48 seats in the state.
The opposition BJP-Sena alliance in the state seemed the frontrunner in the assembly polls following the dream run in Lok Sabha, but differences over seat-sharing talks hit it hard.
Read: How Sena's stand can affect BJP's plan of trumping Cong-NCP bigwigs
Many feel the setbacks suffered by the BJP in the recent bypolls could have given the Sena an upper hand in the seat-sharing talks.
Amid the bickering, Uddhav tried to reach out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who himself has reportedly held talks with senior state leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari over the issue.
