Whether or not the JD(S) honours its pact with the BJP about handing over the reigns of power in Karnataka, the power-sharing formula has been borrowed by the saffron partners BJP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra to keep the alliance intact.

It is learnt that the two parties have agreed to share power the Karnataka way, that is, each party will have a shot at the chief  ministership for two and half years, if the alliance comes to power in the state.  In fact, it was reportedly on this pre-condition that the impasse between the two parties was broken. Only after the Sena agreed to the power-sharing formula was Sena working president Uddhav Thackeray invited by Leader of Opposition L K Advani to Delhi recently.

Among other things that have been agreed by the two partners are giving more assembly seats to the BJP and exchanging perennially losing seats to each other.

The seat-sharing formula heavily favours Shiv Sena in the assembly elections, and the BJP in the parliamentary elections. For the assembly polls, the BJP’s seat share is only 110, while the Sena gets 178 seats to contest.  The Sena now has given its green signal to give 25 more assembly seats to the BJP, it is learnt.  The demand was first raised by the slain BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, who was the architect of the alliance between the two parties.

Contentions
The state BJP leaders, particularly State President Nitin Gadkari and former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde, were insisting on breaking the alliance, arguing that the alliance was not helping the BJP, on the contrary, limiting its reach in Maharashtra.

 Their contention was that the BJP will win 10-15 seats more from its present tally of 54 in the assembly if the alliance is broken, as the party will be able to field better candidates in many seats which are given to Sena under the seat-sharing pact.

Then there was anger within the BJP over Uddhav’s ambitions to become the chief minister. Munde himself has been a long time aspirant for the post, but due to the alliance pact, he could never have fulfiled his ambition. Sena with larger share of seats would have always claimed the chief ministership. That clause in the pact has been changed now, to the advantage of the BJP.

Uddhav Thackeray, however, claimed that the truce was reached without any pre-condition. He and BJP’s Gadkari are likely to thrash out details of the new formula after the Ganesh Festival is over and the two parties are expected to take on the Congress-NCP coalition with some vigour.