Setback to Shiv Sena: 26 leaders resign over seat sharing

Mumbai: In a major setback to the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance ahead of the state Assembly polls slated for October 21, as many as 26 Sena corporators from Kalyan-Dombivali and Ulhasnagar, and around 300 party workers sent their resignation to party chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday.

Expressing unhappiness over the saffron alliance’s seat-sharing formula, Shiv Sena’s corporators and workers submitted their resignation to Mr Thackeray in support of Dhananjay Bodare, a Sena corporator from Ulhasnagar who had raised the flag of rebellion by opting to contest the Kalyan East Assembly constituency as an Independent candidate after the alliance, as per its seat-sharing arrangement, fielded BJP candidate Ganpat Gaiwad from the constituency. The seat is currently held by an independent MLA.

Irked local Shiv Sena leaders, who wanted their party to contest that seat, had convened a meeting and directed workers to support Mr Bodare. “Despite being a sitting MLA, Mr Gaikwad has done little for the constituency. We want an MLA who will listen to people’s grievances and solve them. Hence, we have resigned from the party and we will support Mr Bodare,” said a Sena leader.

This is the second en masse resignation in October. Earlier this month, more than 200 Shiv Sena workers in Navi Mumbai had resigned over the Airoli and Belapur seats being offered to the BJP.

On Tuesday, at the party’s annual Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park on Tuesday, Mr Thackeray had apologised for giving away seats to their allia-nce partner, the BJP, stating that “we compromised for Maharashtra.”

He had requested all party workers who could not get tickets to support alliance candidates. But it seems his appeal failed to cut ice with his supporters.

A Shiv Sena leader said that since the party is contesting the elections in alliance with the BJP, they do not want to embarrass the party leadership by opposing the BJP candidate while still in the party. Hence they decided to resign and openly support Mr Bodare.

Among the corporators who have resigned, 16 are from Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) while 10 are from Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation.

Though both the BJP and Shiv Sena have been claiming that all is well with their respective parties, there are several rebel candidates from both parties in different constituencies in Maharashtra.

The Shiv Sena, which has always been the big brother in the 25-year-old saffron alliance in Maharashtra, is contesting 124 seats out of 288 seats in the forthcoming Assembly polls, while the BJP is contesting 150, and other allies will be contesting the remaining 14 seats.

Maharashtra, which has 288-member Assembly, will go to polls on October 21, while the counting of votes will take place on October 24.

In 2014 Assembly polls, the BJP won 122 seats to the Sena’s 63. The Congress was a distant third with 42 seats and its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), won 41.