File Photo: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray with PM Modi. (Associated Press)
"The alliance with the Shiv Sena is over," the BJP said in Mumbai this evening, ending a 25-year-old partnership. It said it was taking the decision with a "heavy heart" and promised a courteous break-up.
"We asked them to be flexible, but the Shiv Sena stuck to 151 seats. There is very little time for nominations," explained the BJP's Eknath Khadse after a meeting of top state leaders.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has not commented yet on the dissolution of a partnership constructed by his father, Bal Thackeray, along with two BJP leaders - Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde - a quarter century ago. All three leaders have died since.
Uddhav's son Aditya Thackeray, 24, said he was saddened at the end of a partnership older than him.
"Very sad that BJP chose to part ways with 25 yr old ally Shiv Sena when we stuck together even in their Bure Din (bad days), unconditionally," he tweeted and posted a picture of his grandfather with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pramod Mahajan.
The Sena is also likely to pull out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre. The party, NDA's biggest constituent, has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha and its leader Anant Geete is Heavy Industries Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet. If the Sena decides to pull out of the NDA, the BJP-led alliance will be reduced to 318 out of the 336 seats it won in the national elections held earlier this year.
The two parties had bickered for days over seats for the Maharashtra elections to be held on October 15. The BJP wanted 128 of the 288 seats; the Sena wanted at least 148. That left only 12 seats for smaller allies, who protested.
The BJP today said it had cast its lot with those smaller allies and will carry them with it in these elections.
At stake was the chief minister's post which the partner with the more seats would've got if the alliance was voted to power. The Shiv Sena wants the seat for Uddhav Thackeray.
While the two parties will now contest the state elections separately, there is speculation that the split could trigger political realignment. Barely an hour after the BJP and Shiv Sena split, the rival Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance also came apart. The Congress has alleged that the BJP and Sharad-Pawar's NCP have been in talks. The NCP has denied this.