MUMBAI: Seat-sharing talks between the Shiv Sena and the BJP have almost ground to a halt, with the saffron allies adopting tough stances.Late on Sunday evening, state BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said “talks have come to a standstill”. A source said the party’s national president, Amit Shah, is likely to arrive in Mumbai on Monday to meet state leaders on the crisis.The Sena is unwilling to consider the BJP's 50:50 formula, whereby the two should each contest 135 of the total 288 assembly seats, and four smaller allies should be given the remaining 18. On Sunday, Sena MP Sanjay Raut reiterated that the chief minister would only be from the Sena, a day after party chief Uddhav Thackeray delivered a sharp warning to the BJP against “lust for power”.Since this has made it clear that the Sena is not keen on accepting the BJP's invitation to resume negotiations, the BJP’s central leadership has given the party’s Maharashtra unit carte blanche on the question of continuing in the alliance in view of the Sena's "unreasonable and high-handed" attitude, a key state BJP leader said.What Raut said was: "Sena-BJP relations are good... (But) the chief minister can only be from our party.” This prompted the BJP to hit back immediately by calling him a small leader and saying the next government in the state will be led by the BJP.“We have been told by our New Delhi bosses to make it clear to the Sena that the CM’s post should go to us,” a key BJP leader said.The question of breaking with the alliance has also been taken up in the Sena, which has sought the opinion of vibhag pramukhs (key in the organizational hierarchy) on the matter.Matoshree is firm on two points—the CM’s post and recognition by the BJP of the Sena's senior status in the alliance in the state. “Since 1989, when the Sena-BJP alliance was formed, the Sena has been the senior partner in Maharashtra, while the BJP enjoys seniority at the national level," said Sena MP Arvind Sawant.Sunday’s statement by Raut, MP and executive editor of Sena mouthpiece Saamna, followed Thackeray giving a free hand to close colleagues to do sabre-rattling on behalf of the party. Besides Raut, other senior functionaries like Divakar Raote and Arvind Sawant have been roped in for the task.Political experts say the ongoing crisis could be a ploy by the saffron partners to buy time to pre-empt revolt in the parties ahead of the polls.