Mumbai : Republican Party of India (A) chief Ramdas Athawale went public with his displeasure over seat-sharing with the Shiv Sena- Bharatiya Janata Party grand alliance (Mahayuti) in Maharashtra on Wednesday. He threatened to pull out of the alliance if his party was given just four to five seats in the upcoming state assembly elections.
“Republican Party should be treated respectfully and given seats in two digits. If we are given only four-five seats, we’ll decide whether to continue with the alliance or not,” Athawale said.
RPI (A) had given an ultimatum to the Sena-BJP combine over seat-sharing last week. “We do not want to break our alliance with the ‘Mahayuti’. But if the bigger parties are not at all willing to give up their seats for RPI, we will enter the poll fray without any alliance and make sure we give the other candidates a tough fight,” Athawale said.
He was addressing reporters here on the sidelines of the state committee meeting of the party on distribution of seats, which is yet to be finalised, to it.
