The Seat-Sharing Pact Is Causing An Uproar In The Ranks Of Sena And BJP

Mumbai: After the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) announced its first list of candidates, the Shiv Sena immediately released its first list of 124 seats and 68 candidates.
 
However, the seat-sharing arrangement between the BJP and Shiv Sena is causing an uproar in the ranks of both parties.

Though the Shiv Sena has issued ‘A-B’ form (which mentions the official party candidate) to its sitting MLAs as well as to some candidates, no major leader has submitted a nomination so far.

In the Shiv Sena list of candidates, there are 9 outsiders who recently joined Shiv Sena from other parties.

With Tuesday’s announcement, the division of the NDA alliance in the 288-seat State Assembly elections will be 125 seats for BJP, 124 seats for Shiv Sena and the remaining 39 seats for smaller partners like RPI. Along with the 124 seats, the Shiv Sena will also get two MLC seats from the BJP quota.

More than 200 Navi Mumbai Shiv Sena workers including the city chief and district vice-president have submitted their resignations in protest. They are upset over reports that the Airoli and Belapur seats have been offered to the BJP, especially to the defector from NCP Ganesh Naik.

The Navi Mumbai area has traditionally seen a poll battle between strongman Ganesh Naik and the Shiv Sena. His son and Airoli MLA Sandip joined the BJP last month. The Naik family has ruled the satellite town of Navi Mumbai for years.

In Mumbai, Shiv Sena agreed to hand over the Wadala seat to the BJP, so that BJP member Kalidas Kolambkar can stand for election from there. Initially, Kolambkar was in Shiv Sena, but he quit the party along with Narayan Rane and joined the Congress. In the last election Kolambkar defeated BJP’s Mihir Kotecha and Shiv Sena’s Shraddha Jadhav. 

This time Shraddha Jadhav was expecting to get the ticket, but the Shiv Sena agreed that the seat should go to BJP for Kolambkar. This has made Shiv Sainiks unhappy.