Continuing to play hardball with “Big Brother”, the Shiv Sena on Saturday demanded a written assurance from ally BJP over the 50-50 seat sharing formula in Maharashtra.

A meeting of 56 newly-elected MLAs of the party was held at Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence ‘Matoshree’, where it was decided that a letter on BJP letterhead and signed by senior leadership must be produced to confirm the 50-50 alliance deal agreed between Thackeray and Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

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The party has also demanded that both the allies should get a chance to run government for 2.5 years each so that Shiv Sena can also have a chief minister.

“In our meeting, it was decided that like Amit Shah ji had promised 50-50 formula before Lok Sabha polls, similarly both allies should get chance to run the government for 2.5 years each so that Shiv Sena should also have a CM. Uddhav ji should get this assurance in writing from BJP,” Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik.

On Friday, Thackeray reminded his party’s ally to honour the 50:50 BJP-Shiv Sena deal.

“When Lok Sabha elections were held we decided on 50-50 formula. Chandrakant Patil (Maharashtra BJP chief) raised some issues… we can only tolerate so much. If the need arises Amit Shah-ji should come here to carry out what was decided earlier,” he had said.

On the day of vote counting, the Shiv Sena chief had reminded the BJP of the 50-50 alliance formula saying that it was time to implement it.

Addressing a press conference, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said: “We reached formula when Amit Shah came to my house, now time to implement that formula.”

“The main question is, who will be the chief minister?” he added.

After analysing the poll results, where the BJP put up a below-par performance, Shiv Sena said there was no “maha janadesh” and the outcome was in fact, a rap on the knuckles for those high on “arrogance of power”.

“The NCP bounced back crossing the 50-seat mark, while a leaderless Congress won 44 seats. The results were a warning to rulers not to show arrogance of power… its a rap on their knuckles,” the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

The BJP-Sena combine bagged around 160 seats in Maharashtra, way below their expectation of crossing the 200-mark.

Meanwhile, posters calling Aaditya Thackeray the “future Chief Minister” have surfaced in parts of Mumbai after the poll results, indicating that Sena workers want him to take the top job despite his father ruling the move out.

A poster was seen outside Thackeray residence as well which read “CM Maharashtra only Aditya Thackeray”.

However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed his unwillingness to give the CM post to the Junior Thackeray but has said that he may have the deputy post.

Earlier, Sena leader Sanjay Raut had said that its ally BJP would not be able to form the next government without the support of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

Meanwhile, the differences between the allies have resulted in a delay in government formation in the state.