Shiv Sena-BJP alliance has gone through a lot of highs and lows in the past few years. After several friction points during joint campaigning of Shiv Sena-BJP, the BJP top brass has put in place a ‘perform or perish’ policy, where they have asked all office-bearers to work for alliance candidates in the Lok Sabha elections or face the prospect of losing their tickets for the state Assembly elections.
A senior BJP functionary told the Mumbai Mirror, “Some MLAs have been specifically told to ensure that the alliance candidates get a lead in their Assembly segments. The MLAs have been asked to ensure that the candidates get at least the same number of votes that they got in the Assembly polls. If the lead drops, then it will have a bearing on their candidature for the Assembly polls.”
The 25-year-old BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has seen a lot of acrimony in the past few years. The BJP which is aiming to regain power at Centre and aiming at which it needs maximum numbers of seats in Lok Sabha elections. A Shiv Sena functionary told the leading daily, “We don’t have a lot at stake in these elections, but the BJP has. So the BJP MLAs and other ticket aspirants have been asked to work for all alliance candidates. They are putting efforts and coordinating with us well. If they fail to give the Sena candidate a lead, it will be clear that they didn’t work, and we will put pressure to drop them in the Assembly elections.”
In the Lok Sabha elections, Shiv Sena and BJP have agreed on a seat-sharing formula, where Sena will contest on 23 seats and BJP will contest on 25 seats. They also agreed on a 50:50 seat-sharing formula for the state assembly elections, slated for October this year.
