Shiv Sena to remain with us, says Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve

MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve said on Friday the Shiv Sena would remain with its oldest ally even though its president Uddhav Thackeray has announced that the party will fight upcoming Lok Sabha and state assembly polls alone.
"We were in an alliance for 25 years. Barring the last election we have always been together," Danve said addressing reporters in Mumbai.

He declined to comment on whether the Sena would walk out of the National Democratic Alliance and the government.

He informed that the BJP would celebrate its foundation day on April 6 in presence of its president Amit Shah with a rally that would be attended by around three lakh party workers.

"We want to make the 39th foundation day a grand event. We celebrate it every year so it is not right to say that we are sounding a poll bugle," he said replying to a question.

He denied the possibility of early elections and said that the rally was a part of the BJP's organisational activity and should not be linked to elections.

"It has been proven that both governments of the NDA, under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the current one under Narendra Modi, are capable of holding on to its allies. We are trying to keep our allies with us."

Talking about organisational activities, Danve said that the BJP had changed its strategy in terms of number of workers assigned to each polling booth.

"Earlier, we had 10 workers per booth. Now, the number has been raised to 25. There are 92,000 polling booths in the state and we have managed to reach 83,000 booths," he said.

He claimed that the party was in the top position in the state because the government was working for the benefit of farmers, women, youth, Dalits, OBCs and tribals.