The Shiv Sena on Tuesday expressed its unhappiness over its ally
Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) attempts to woo Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray.
The Sena was reacting over the meeting between senior BJP leader
Nitin Gadkari and the MNS chief to discuss possibilities of joining
hands with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
"There is no room for another party in the alliance. We had extended
our hand when MNS had refused it. As an alliance, we are strong enough
to defeat the Congress government," said Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay
Raut.
He added that what Gadkari did was in his personal capacity and not on behalf of his party.
Read: Gadkari-Raj meet sparks talk of seat ‘adjustments’
"In Maharashtra, it is Gopinath Munde and Devendra Fadnavis who call the shots," Raut added.
He said that this kind of confusion in the BJP will affect the vote share of the alliance.
The Sena leader also expressed confidence of his party firmly holding onto the Marathi electorate in Maharashtra.
"Marathi votes will remain with Shiv Sena only. Nobody can dare take it away from us," he said.
"The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance will defeat Congress-NCP and would win as
many as 40 seats out of the total 48 Lok Sabha in Maharashtra," Raut
claimed.
Meanwhile, Raj held a meeting with his legislators on Tuesday to discuss his strategy.
"Whatever decision he takes will be in the benefit of Marathi manoos
and Maharashtra. We are ready with our candidate list," MNS legislator
Bala Nandgaonkar said.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had expressed his displeasure over the
Gadkari-Raj meeting saying that there is a communication gap within the
BJP.
"Those within the BJP who are praising Congress-NCP leaders are
responsible for creating a communication gap. It is the internal matter
of the BJP but the Mahayuti is determined to unseat the Congress-NCP
government," said Uddhav.
He also called BJP chief Rajnath Singh and summoned Maharashtra BJP chief Fadnavis over the matter on Monday night.
Garkari met the MNS chief on Monday in a Mumbai hotel without the
Sena's knowledge and reportedly appealed to him to abstain from
contesting the Lok Sabha
elections to avoid splitting the anti-Congress vote.
After the meeting, Gadkari had told reporters that he discussed ways to get rid of the Congress government with the MNS chief.
"There is no reason for Uddhav Thackeray to be annoyed over my
meeting Raj... I meet everybody including Congress people," he said.
"We want to ensure that the Congress-NCP don't benefit from a split
in the anti-Congress vote. If the MNS abstains it will help the Shiv
Sena candidates. Don't think the Sena is upset," he said.
The BJP state president too denied that the Sena is upset. He said in
a tweet that the meeting with Uddhav was a scheduled one to discuss the
BJP-Sena joint campaign.
However, RPI(A) led by Ramdas Athawale, also an important constituent
of the Mahayuti led by BJP and Shiv Sena, said he would "welcome" Raj
into NDA-fold.
MNS' high-pitch debut in 2009
elections had caused a large scale division of Marathi votes and ensured the defeat of Sena candidates in Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
