'Destiny made me CM, talks broke over...': Devendra Fadnavis shares inside story of BJP-Sena split in 2014

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said that the BJP’s alliance with the then-undivided Shiv Sena fell apart in 2014 over a disagreement involving just four assembly seats. He was speaking at a felicitation event in Mumbai for Sikkim Governor Om Prakash Mathur, who had served as BJP’s Maharashtra in-charge that year.

Fadnavis said the BJP had planned to contest 127 seats and offered Shiv Sena 147 in the 288-member state assembly. “We gave the Shiv Sena an ultimatum to contest 147 seats, and we decided to contest 127 seats, even as we believed would win more than 200 seats. The Shiv Sena would have the chief minister's post, while the BJP would have its deputy CM,” he said.

However, the Sena was not willing to budge. “We were told that the 'yuvaraj' had announced to contest 151 seats, and they were not willing to back down on that number,” Fadnavis added, without naming anyone.

He said the situation led to the alliance breaking down, which eventually paved the way for his elevation as chief minister. “It seems the destiny then planned to make me the state's chief minister,” Fadnavis said, recounting consultations with senior BJP leader Amit Shah. “We spoke with Amit Shah and told him that things won't work this way. He spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah, Mathur and I were confident that we could put up a strong fight in the 2014 assembly elections.”

Responding to his remarks, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said there was more to the story. “Discussions were stretched for 72 hours over every seat. Om Mathur was (BJP's) Maharashtra in-charge at the time. I will admit honestly that Fadnavis was in favour of maintaining the alliance with the Shiv Sena. He wanted the alliance, but it broke because the party's (BJP) senior leaders wanted it to happen,” Raut claimed.

The two parties eventually fought the 2014 elections separately. In that election, the BJP won 122 of 260, while Shiv Sena had to settle with just 63 of 282 it contested. The Shiv Sena joined the BJP government post-polls under Fadnavis’s leadership. The alliance would again fracture in 2019 over a tussle for the chief minister’s post. In 2022, the Shiv Sena split when a faction led by Eknath Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray.