The Sena says, being a regional player, it will be wiped out if it cedes dominance to its national ally and lets the BJP stake a claim for chief ministership.119169144144There is a growing chorus in the BJP to ditch the Shiv Sena and go it alone in the upcoming state assembly elections, party insiders revealed, even as leaders from both sides publicly backed the alliance.Both parties drop hints of severing ties before every key election in a ritualistic squabble over seat sharing. But the BJP sources said that this time, a section of its leaders from Maharashtra had made the strongest case yet to contest the assembly polls, due in October, alone.The main reason for pushing for a split is the seatsharing formula which has not changed since the 1990s. The agreement, brokered by Bal Thackeray and Pramod Mahajan, gives the BJP only 117 assembly seats to contest out of the total 288, effectively ruling out the candidature of a BJP leader for the chief minister’s post.State BJP leaders, who debated the issue during a meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, now want a 50:50 division, where both parties will contest 144 seats.Newly elected BJP chief Amit Shah also reportedly believes that his party would have a better shot at forming the new government in the state if it goes solo. The confidence stems from the party’s spectacular show in the Lok Sabha elections: it won 24 seats in Maharashtra against Sena’s 18.The 24 parliamentary seats comprised 144 assembly segments, out of which the BJP was leading in 134. A similar performance in the assembly polls would enable the party to stake claim to the chief minister’s post.Even a section of Sena leaders have suggested to their chief, Uddhav Thackeray, that their party should contest the assembly polls alone if the BJP didn’t stick to the original seatsharing pact. Party cadres, in fact, have been asked to be “prepared for the worst”, Shiv Sena sources said.A senior Sena leader, who didn’t want to be named, said that his party didn’t want to break the saffron alliance, but stressed that it would not accept any changes to the seat-sharing pact.“We will keep the alliance intact on one condition: the traditional seatsharing formula is not changed. The Sena will not entertain any demands for more seats from the BJP. If any discussion has to happen, it will only be about seat exchanges. This has been conveyed clearly by Uddhavsaheb to the BJP top brass,” the Sena leader said.Shiv Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said that there was no threat to the alliance. But he said that people of Maharashtra wanted to “see Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister”.“Our alliance with the BJP is strong and cannot be broken so easily. The Sena leadership is in touch with top BJP figures such as Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh. They have indicated that the alliance will continue. We will not be swayed by local leaders’ opinions,” Raut said.In the 2009 assembly polls, the BJP won 46 seats, while Sena managed only 44 despite contesting from 177 constituencies. In 2004, the Sena won 62 seats, while its saffron ally won 56.Another senior Sena leader said that his party cannot sacrifice seats to save the alliance. “We are a regional party. The moment we agree for a 50:50 seat-sharing formula, the BJP will push for more seats and stake claim to the chief minister’s post. That would be disastrous for us,” he said.“The BJP is already in power at the Centre, and if they contest and win more seats in Maharashtra, they will elbow us out.”State BJP president Devendra Fadnavis and Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar said on Wednesday that the party was not considering to end the alliance and the two parties’ sole aim was to remove Congress-NCP from power.“But we hope that we get a proportionate share of assembly seats that reflects new political realities,” Fadnavis said. Another BJP leader said that the two saffron allies might consider an agreement where a leader from each side would hold the chief minister’s post for two and a half years.