Hours after the Shiv Sena proclaimed itself as ‘the big brother’ in Maharashtra politics for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis countered it by saying the BJP is not seeking a tie-up desperately.
“BJP does want an alliance with the Shiv Sena but we are not desperate for it. We want the alliance as custodians of Hindutva and a strong force against corruption,” he said. Fadnavis’s reaction came after Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said, “We are the big brother in Maharashtra, we were the big brother and will stay the big brother.”
Earlier in the day, the Sena had called a meeting of its MPs which was chaired by party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Following the meeting, Raut said, “We discussed Rafale, issue of drought in Maharashtra. Udhav Thackrey Ji said on the 10% EWS quota to General Category that people with annual income of 8 lakh must be exempted from paying Income Tax. Since you have labelled them poor, they must be exempted.”
Several BJP ministers in the state have stated earlier that an alliance with the Shiv Sena, which has often been critical of the BJP-led government, is needed to keep anti-Hindutva forces at bay. Fadnavis had earlier maintained that there has been no open communication with the Sena, but through backdoors, they have been holding talks.
The two parties which are in alliance at the centre had fought the 2014 Parliamentary elections together and won 41 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Sena had won 18 of the 20 seats it contested.
Talking about the BJP-led government’s performance in the last four and a half years, Fadnavis said that “potholes” of the last 60 years cannot be fixed within five years. “We need a continuation,” he said. Till 2014, the BJP and Sena, allies for long, had an understanding where the former contested a larger share of Lok Sabha seats and the latter contested a greater number of Assembly seats in Maharashtra.
