Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis recalls 2014 state polls alliance discussions with Shiv Sena

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 25 (ANI): Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis attended an event in Mumbai on Monday in honour of a senior BJP leader and former Sikkim governor.
While speaking during the event, Devendra Fadnavis recalled the incident from the 2014 state assembly polls. Fadnavis threw light on the alliance talks with Shiv Sena and their proposal on which they wanted to fight the elections together.
The Maharashtra CM said that they proposed Shiv Sena to fight elections on 147 and themselves on 127 seats, whereas the rest seats were kept for other alliance partners. However, he revealed that Shiv Sena wanted to fight elections on 151 seats due to which the alliance talks failed.
BJP and then Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray fought the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections alone. Fadnavis asserted that they had proposed Shiv Sena to keep the CM post but they were not ready for settlement.
"When the talks of alliance started, the Shiv Sena of that time had decided in its mind that it had to contest only 151 seats. Whereas our proposal was that we would contest on 127 seats and Shiv Sena would contest on 147 seats, we would give the remaining seats to our smaller alliance partners... Due to this reason, the matter could not move forward even though we explained to them a lot that we would contest on 127, and you contest on 147, you would have the Chief Minister, and we would have the Deputy Chief Minister... They were not ready to have a settlement..." , CM Fadnavis said.
The BJP won 122 seats in the 2014 Maharashtra elections, and Devendra Fadnavis was elected the state's CM. Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the BJP after the polls and was part of the government. (ANI)