Respect 50:50 formula or the alliance could break: Shiv Sena warns BJP

Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said that his party would not mind breaking alliance with the BJP if the latter fails to give half seats to Shiv Sena to contest in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election. "BJP will have to respect the fifty-fifty formulae that was decided in presence of Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. I am not talking of breaking alliance but what Diwakar Raote has said is not wrong," Sanjay Raut told ANI.

Shiv Sena's,Sanjay Raut on Maharashtra Min Diwakar Raote's statement 'if Shiv Sena doesn't get half the seats then alliance could break':If 50-50 seat sharing formula was decided upon before Amit Shah Ji&CM,then his statement isn't wrong.Chunaav sath ladenge,kyun nahi ladenge pic.twitter.com/m2fbggbgyt

— ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2019

On Wednesday, Shiv Sena leader Raote, who is also a minister in Maharashtra government, had claimed that the pre-poll alliance between Shiv Sena and BJP could break if Sena is not given equal number of seats by the BJP. It is to be noted that the BJP and Shiv Sena had failed to stitch an alliance before 2014 Assembly election and both contested separately. The two parties, however, joined hands to form the government after none of them managed to win the majority on its own.

On Tuesday (September 17), Zee Media had reported that the tussle between the Shiv Sena and BJP over seat-sharing has increased ahead of the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly election 2019. Sources told Zee Media that the Shiv Sena has reiterated its condition of the '50-50 formula' for a pre-poll alliance with the BJP. It is learnt that the BJP is unwilling to leave more than 124 for the Shiv Sena. 

For his part, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has reportedly asked his party leaders to remain prepared to contest the election alone. Shiv Sena has also started the process of selection of interested candidates in all the seats including Nagpur. In all the seats, the party has started the interview of its interested candidates.