After Amit Shah meeting, Uddhav Thackeray signals all is not well between BJP and Shiv Sena

A day after a meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray signaled that his party could still contest the Lok Sabha elections on its own.

Thackeray, who addressed party workers in Talasari, 125 kms from Mumbai, projected Srinivas Wanga as the Shiv Sena’s candidate for the Palghar Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Palghar has been BJP’s seat and Wanga is the son of late BJP MP Chintaman Wanga, whom Sena inducted days ahead of the bypolls in the seat last month.

The Shiv Sena lost the bitterly contested bypoll. Thackeray reiterated on Thursday that he would not accept the defeat. He also signaled that despite the meeting with Shah, all was not settled between the allies. “The entire picture is yet to unfold, whatever is happening now is just drama (picture toh ab baaki hai). You are the hero in this picture of 2019,’’ Thackeray told Wanga through his address.

He also told Wanga he had got only 15 days for preparing for this years bypolls, but now he would get 8 to 9 months for the Lok Sabha polls and he should not rest until he become the MP. “Now, we can’t let go of this seat,’’ Thackeray added

He also questioned the BJP win, saying many names were missing from the voters’ list and bogus voting was rampant, besides the malfunctioning of the Electronic Voting Machines. He also said that the Sena would continue to oppose the BJP’s bullet train project, the Mumbai-Vadodara expressway and other projects.

Senior Sena leaders said that the leadership is cautious and the party will continue its aggressive stance for now despite Shah offering to make amends in the meeting. During the meeting between Thackeray and Shah, the former is said to have taken up issues such as lack of communication within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and no role in decision-making for the Sena within the Maharashtra government.

Shah is learnt to have offered a favourable agreement for the state polls, a 50:50 seat sharing formual, if the Sena goes with the BJP for the Lok Sabha polls. He also promised another two to three meetings with senior leaders of both parties to sort out grievances and discuss the alliance.

“In 2014, we have seen things change between the Lok Sabha election and the Assembly poll. The BJP has backstabbed us in the past; we will now wait and watch,’’ said a senior Sena leader.

``All main sticking points were discussed in the meeting including each other grievances. Both Lok Sabha and assembly polls were also discussed. The Sena chief did agree that the Hindutva agenda must not lose due to this bickering in the upcoming elections,’’ said a senior BJP leader.