Amit Shah to mediate with Shiv Sena over Maharashtra govt formation

The BJP’s parliamentary board has authorised party president Amit Shah to speak to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on the shape of the coalition government in Maharashtra after Thursday’s results. The choice of negotiator from the BJP was conveyed by senior Shiv Sena leaders to the BJP, who said that talks should be at the “top level” and not, as had become the case, between State leaders of the BJP with Mr. Thackeray. This is just one of the terms that the Sena, in a strange position of having done worse than 2014 in terms of numbers but enjoying greater clout in the Mahayuthi, has put before the BJP. The second, and most important of course, is that of having a rotating chief ministership, that is, the BJP to have its Chief Minister for two-and-a-half years and the Shiv Sena for the remainder of the five-year term. According to senior sources in the Shiv Sena, both Thackeray senior and son Aaditya are adamant about this. Mr. Thackeray reportedly told a few well-wishers that he too “needed to run my party” and is not settling for anything less than the 50-50 formula. The Shiv Sena is determined to stick to its guns and say that it was only fitting since through the elections ally BJP too had not spared it. “Nearly 12 Independents who got elected are either BJP or Shiv Sena rebels, and there were more than 30 seats in which rebels spoilt the show for Mahayuthi. In the seat sharing, we were given seats which were legacy seats for the Congress or Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In most cases, we were facing off the NCP and the mobilisation of the previously somnolent NCP after the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) notice to Sharad Pawar hurt us directly,” said a source. Source: The Hindu