A party that claims to have a strong, decisive national leadership is facing a strange crisis in the state. It has no potential CM candidate unlike the Lok Sabha campaign’s singular focus on Modi as PM no clue on how many seats to contest and whether to contest them in alliance with Shiv Sena or to fight it out alone.

The BJP has more MPs (23) in Maharashtra than the Shiv Sena (18); all of its MPs have won by vote margins greater than 1 lakh as compared to the Sena’s six MPs who managed such wins. Yet, it lets the latter play big brother. The party is indecisive about how many seats to contest estimated range from 130 to 145. They don’t know whether to keep the alliance with the Sena or go it alone. The national president comes to Mumbai and ignores the Sena. The very next day, the BJP state leadership holds meetings on seat-sharing with the same ignored partner.