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BJP rejects Shiv Sena’s ‘final offer’ New Delhi, September 21 The top central leadership of the party held marathon discussions on all 288 seats but stopped short of issuing a list. Sources said the first list could be expected tomorrow as the party wanted to leave an "overnight" window open for the Sena leadership to soften its stance. The BJP leadership wants to give the 25-year-old alliance with the Shiv Sena a last chance. Sources say more negotiations are expected through the night to resolve the tussle for the 59 seats where both the BJP and Sena have performed poorly in the past. Sources say the Maharashtra leaders also conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the BJP would be better off going alone in these elections than conceding to Sena chief Udhav Thackaray’s “impractical” offer. “On the basis of statistics and records we told Central leadership that the BJP had always had a better strike rate than Sena. The party was not just capable of going alone but also forming the government in Maharashtra,” they said. It was a day of hectic activity in the party’s central office here as earlier in the day Maharashtra core group held discussions on the issue of seat-sharing in the presence of party chief Amit Shah. The Central Election Committee meeting in the evening was also attended by the PM and other top leaders. According to state leaders, their tussle with Sena was now more than an ego hassle over some 11-odd seats. “If we relent now, the message to allies and electorate would be that of a defeat. We do not want to break up a 25-year-old alliance. Shiv Sena has
The top central leadership of the party held marathon discussions on all 288 seats but stopped short of issuing a list. Sources said the first
list could be expected tomorrow as the party wanted to leave an "overnight" window open for the Sena leadership to soften its stance. The BJP leadership wants to give the 25-year-old alliance with Shiv Sena the last chance. Sources say more negotiations are expected through the night to resolve the tussle for the 59 seats where both BJP and Sena have performed poorly in the past. Earlier speaking to the media, Maharashtra leaders Eknath Khadse and Vinod Tawde said all they wanted was redistribution of seats that Sena had
not won for 25 years so that they are not presented to the NCP-Congress alliance virtually on
a platter. “Shiv Sena has been losing on 35 seats while we have been losing on 19, if these were to be re-allocated then we would all benefit instead of these seats going automatically to the Congress-NCP alliance,” they said, stressing that the BJP wanted the alliance to continue. “There is pressure from the cadres from the state to go alone in the polls
but the BJP wants to continue with the alliance,” Khadse said. While the BJP has rejected Thackaray’s last offer — Sena 151 seats, allies 18 and the BJP 119 seats — it is also livid at the way the Sena chief has been issuing statements through media and talking about Modi. Thackeray had reminded the PM of the support lent to him by late Sena chief Bal Thackeray in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots. To this, Khadse said “We have expressed our anger on remarks made against the Prime Minister. We will not tolerate any attack on Modi who is our leader.” Sena offer ‘impractical’
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Shiv Sena had made a final offer of 119 seats to the BJP in Maharashtra Assembly elections next week
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The BJP said it was ready
to settle for no less than 130 seats
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Maharashtra leaders conveyed to PM that the BJP would be better off going alone
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They termed Sena chief Udhav Thackaray's offer “impractical”
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