
It may be noted that the 25-year-old Shiv Sena-BJP alliance breathed its last on Thursday, bringing to an end a robust and stormy era in coalition politics in Maharashtra and India.
After more than a fortnight of often-bitter negotiations over seat-sharing for the October 15 assembly polls, BJP announced the decision at a press conference at the party’s Backbay Reclamation state headquarters. A phone call from BJP national president Amit Shah to Maharashtra BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis sealed the saffron alliance’s fate, it is learned. Senior state BJP leader Eknath Khadse conveyed his party’s farewell to Sena president Uddhav Thackeray over the phone.
The tussle over the chief minister’s post turned out to be the biggest stumbling block during talks, with Sena repeatedly saying that Uddhav would be CM after the elections and BJP saying its ally was not willing to cut its seats from 151 because it wanted to claim the top post. BJP president Amit Shah had said during a visit to Mumbai in August that the next government in Maharashtra would be led by the BJP.








