The Shiv Sena, the BJP’s oldest ally, moved its newly elected MLAs to a hotel in Bandra on a day its mouthpiece Saamana alleged that “the last stint in power is being used to get a second stint by distributing moneybags”.

The Sena, locked in a hard bargain with the BJP for an equal share of power in Maharashtra, denied that the MLAs had checked into the hotel because of fears of poaching.

“You know the MLA hostel has been demolished and there is no place to stay. So we have arranged a hotel for the MLAs to stay for a couple of days,” Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

“It’s necessary for all the MLAs to be together in the prevailing situation,” PTI quoted Sena MLA Sunil Prabhu as saying.

In popular perception, hotels and resorts have become bywords for poaching and horse-trading — an image reinforced by the drama that played itself out, ironically, in a Mumbai hotel when the BJP made a successful run for power in Karnataka and the Congress-JDS coalition was turfed out in the southern state.

The Sena MLAs checked into the hotel after a meeting at the home of party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Saamana had made an enigmatic statement in an editorial on Thursday: “The last stint in power is being used to get a second stint by distributing moneybags.”

“Uddhav Thackerayji is firm on a Shiv Sainik as chief minister on a rotational basis,” Raut said after the meeting.

“The Constitution is not the BJP’s preserve. We will have a Sena chief minister under the Constitution,” he added, responding to the BJP’s veiled threat about the “legal implications” of the standoff.

With one day left for the expiry of the current Assembly and no sign of agreement on government formation, the spectre of President’s rule looms over the state.

The BJP, which had declared victory in the Assembly elections on October 24, cannot afford to lose power in the country’s financial capital, party leaders in Delhi said. The BJP won 105 seats and ally Sena 56 in the 288-member Assembly.

A BJP delegation later in the day called on governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari but did not stake claim to form the government. Outgoing chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who the Sena does not see eye to eye with, was not part of the delegation.

“We discussed with the governor the legal options in the given circumstances. The Mahayuti (BJP-Sena alliance) has won a clear majority in the polls and so a government should have been formed,” state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said afterwards.

On Thursday morning, the party’s central leadership had deployed Union minister and Maharashtra veteran Nitin Gadkari to fire-fight. Instead of Mumbai, Gadkari rushed to his hometown Nagpur and met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who appears to have emerged a key negotiator in the attempt to keep the two Hindutva parties together.

While Gadkari ruled out becoming chief minister, saying “there was no question”, he made a nuanced statement with respect to Fadnavis returning as chief minister. Gadkari said Fadnavis “should” — not “will” — become the chief minister.

“Devendra Fadnavis has been elected as the leader and he should lead the government. The BJP won 105 seats so the chief minister should be from the BJP,” Gadkari said, expressing the hope that the BJP would get the Sena’s support.

Gadkari is not likely to play an active role in resolving the crisis, sources in the BJP said, because he had been sidelined by the current regime. The political turf of Gadkari and Fadnavis overlaps as they both hail from Nagpur. Despite his seniority and experience, Gadkari had found himself on the fringes of Maharashtra politics since the much younger Fadnavis was made chief minister in 2014.

Gadkari had been projected as the candidate for chief minister in 2014 by his supporters but the central leadership did not approve. The current political stalemate can be resolved if Gadkari becomes chief minister but he has refused, the sources said.

“There is no question of me returning to Maharashtra. I am working in Delhi,” Gadkari said in reply to a question. The Sena would be ready give up its claim to the chief minister’s post if Fadnavis is replaced, sources said, and Gadkari suits them most because he shares an excellent rapport with the Thackerays.