File photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and BJP President Amit Shah. (Press Trust of India)
The rift between the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has widened with the Sena threatening to sit in Opposition if the BJP does not give it 'fair' and 'respectable' representation in the Maharashtra government.
The Sena won 63 seats in the recently held Assembly polls while the BJP won 123 seats in the 288-member assembly. The two parties had broken a 25-year-old alliance just before the Assembly election last month and the BJP fell short of the majority by 25-odd seats.
Top Sena sources have told NDTV that the party will meet on Sunday and take a final decision. Sena is worried that if it joins the government without its 'fair share', it would lose out on the Leader of Opposition post as well.
"Talks are on between the Sena and BJP. This is not a question of demand and supply. It is a question of fair representation," Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut told NDTV.
Sources have also told NDTV that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on the telephone after reports of a meeting between NCP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Mr Thackeray.
Mr Raut, however, dismissed the reports as pure gossip and denied any such meeting took place.
Meanwhile, sources said that Sena leader Anil Desai's name has been confirmed as the party's choice for the proposed Union Cabinet expansion tomorrow in New Delhi. But the Sena is not sending the name yet as it wants the BJP to first give it a formula for power-sharing at the state level.
Mr Fadnavis, who currently heads a minority government, is in favour of an alliance with the Sena despite the unconditional outside support being offered by Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The BJP is wary of depending on the NCP as it had attacked Mr Pawar's party for corruption during the election campaign.
With both parties digging in their heels, negotiators have their task cut out and will have to burn midnight oil to achieve any kind of breakthrough.