The Bhartiya Janata Party in the region is not interested to make an alliance with the Shiv Sena even though the talks are on for seat sharing in Mumbai between the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray for a statewide pre-poll alliance.
While Shiv Sena has demanded three seats in rural Nagpur (out of six) and two in urban areas in Nagpur district ( out of six), the BJP is unlikely to oblige its ally. Krupal Tumane, the second term Shiv Sena MP from Ramtek has demanded three seats in rural viz Ramtek, Katol and Saoner for his party. “We are confident of winning these seats as our rank and file and the aspiring candidates are ready,” said Tumane.
During state-level meeting of seat-sharing with BJP, both parties agreed on not asking the seat where the other party had secured victory in last election. Suppose, in Nagpur all six seats clinched by BJP, so Sena should not ask for those seats. Will this principle be
followed?
According to Pravin Datke, City Unit President of BJP, this principle should be followed, though he did refuse to comment on seat sharing part. He said, “We will abide by the party high command’s directives. I just put my view. We have won all six seats and we are
confident of repeating the performance.”
When BJP working president JP Nadda met the party workers in Nagpur last week, almost all the leaders and party workers were vociferous against striking any alliance with the Sena. “Even if there is an alliance, the party should not give more than three seats to Sena — Sindkhed Raja, Mehkar (both in Buldhana district) and Digras (Yavatmal). These seats were bagged by the Sena in 2014. Another seat, Warora (Chandrapur) where the then Sena nominee Suresh Dhanorkar defeated BJP’s Sanjay Deotale should not be given to Sena if there is an alliance,” said a senior party leader of the region, who preferred anonymity. Dhanorkar later left the party and joined the Congress and won Lok Sabha elections from Chandrapur.
Vidarbha is now a BJP citadel as it bagged maximum 44 seats in 2014 elections while Congress won 10 and Sena 4. The NCP was reduced to only one seat—Pusad.
The rank and file of BJP are unwilling to spare even a single seat more to Sena — barring three seats out of four it bagged in Vidarbha region — in 2014 elections. According to local Shiv Sena
sources, the party insisted on at least 15 out of 62 seats in the region. Among them, the Sena has demanded three seats in rural Nagpur and two in Nagpur (urban).
Tumane, has demanded three seats in Nagpur (rural) — Ramtek, Katol, and Saoner — for his party. “We are confident of winning these seats and we have our candidates ready,” claimed Tumane. Meanwhile, the Sena organised a massive Nirdhar rally—Nirdhar Aamcha, “mukhya Mantri” (chief minister) Aamcha—at Kalmeshwar, some 25 km from here this evening.
The rally adopted a resolution to ensure a Shiv Sainik as the next Maharashtra Chief Minister after the elections. Most of the leaders and party workers expressed their anguish over BJP’s “big brother” attitude since 2014 state elections.
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