Mumbai, March 24, 2025 – Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has shed light on the dramatic fallout between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena ahead of the 2014 state assembly elections, pinning the collapse on a deadlock over seat-sharing. Speaking at an event honoring Sikkim Governor Om Prakash Mathur on Monday, Fadnavis revealed that the alliance crumbled when Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, refused to budge from demanding 151 seats, against BJP’s offer of 147.
The BJP, riding high on Narendra Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha sweep, proposed a formula allotting Shiv Sena 147 seats and itself 127, leaving the rest for smaller allies. “We were ready to compromise, but Uddhav was adamant on 151,” Fadnavis said, marking his first detailed public account of the split. The impasse led both parties to contest independently—BJP clinched 122 seats, Shiv Sena 63—before reconciling post-poll, with Fadnavis as CM and Sena as a key ally.
The rift’s roots run deeper than numbers. Shiv Sena’s insistence reflected its fear of losing ground to a resurgent BJP, while the latter leveraged Modi’s wave to assert dominance. The eventual truce lasted until 2019, when another power-sharing dispute—this time over the CM post—severed ties for good, paving the way for Eknath Shinde’s 2022 rebellion.
Today’s revelation stirs an old wound in Maharashtra’s volatile politics. It underscores a persistent issue: coalition egos often trump unity, leaving voters to navigate the fallout. As the Mahayuti alliance now governs, the question lingers—can past lessons stabilize its future?
