Sena, BJP split metro

The deadlock between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party over the allocation of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats is over, with an agreement on dividing Mumbai’s six and Thane’s four seats between them.  The alliance has also settled their row over the Kalyan seat. It has been agreed that the Sena will contest from Kalyan while the BJP will fight from the neighbouring Bhiwandi constituency.

According to BJP sources, the Sena has also accepted the BJP’s condition to back LK Advani as the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate and has said it will remain a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the next five years.

The bitter battle between the two for Mumbai South is over with the BJP conceding the seat to the Sena. The BJP had sought it on traditional grounds (it has contested this seat in the past) for its candidate, Poonam Mahajan, daughter of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan. But the Sena had insisted that after the delimitation, Mohan Rawle, who represented (the old) Mumbai South-Central for five consecutive terms, be allowed to contest the Mumbai South seat.

The Mumbai South-Central seat will be with the Sena. In 2004, Congress’ debutant Eknath Gaikwad had upset former Maharashtra chief minister and Sena leader Manohar Joshi in this constituency.

Mumbai North-Central, which BJP and Sena had both sought, will go to the former, while Mumbai North-West will go the Sena.

BJP vice president and one time MP Kirit Somaiya is expected to contest from Mumbai North-East, where he is well-known for having voiced various issues. He had played a major role in setting Nahur station on Central Railways, between Bhandup and Mulund.
Mumbai North is the bastion of BJP’s former petroleum minister Ram Naik, who has won the seat five times before he lost to film actor Govinda in 2004. He is expected to be nominated this time too.

In Thane district, the Sena will contest from Kalyan and Thane while the BJP will fight it out from neighbouring Bhiwandi and Palghar, according to sources.

The final settlement between the 22-year-old allies came about after a series of meetings the Sena’s Manohar Joshi and BJP’s Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari over last three days.

Meanwhile, Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut stated, “We support Advani as the prime ministerial candidate. Today, terrorism is on rise in the name of secularism. All parties who believe in Hindutva need to come together to combat terrorism.”