Seat-sharing more complex than Partition: Sanjay Raut

Amidst hectic negotiations between the two ruling saffron allies, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that seat-sharing is complex than Partition that India and Pakistan went through in 1947.

The seat-sharing talks are now being directly handled by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.

"Maharashtra is so big. This division of 288 seats is more terrible than the Partition of India-Pakistan," Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member and spokesperson Sanjay Raut said.

"If we were in the Opposition instead of being in the government, the situation would have been different,” said Raut, the executive editor of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece's Saamana.

"Whenever it (seat-sharing agreement) is decided, we will inform you," he added.

Meanwhile, state BJP president and Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said that the discussions were progressing well.

When asked about Raut's statement, Patil said, "He is a good writer so he gives such examples but working out the seat-sharing formula will not be that difficult."

He exuded confidence that the BJP-Sena alliance would cross the tally of 220 in the 288-member Assembly.

On Sunday, BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the BJP would get a working majority on its own and that his party and allies would cross the two-third majority mark.