Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said that he met former Maharashtra chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday to discuss certain issues and that both of them could have ideological differences but there was no enmity between the duo.
"I met Devendra Fadnavis yesterday to discuss certain issues. He is a former chief minister. Also, he is the leader of opposition in Maharashtra and Bihar polls in-charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Our meeting was fixed as I wanted to take his interview for Saamana. Due to COVID-19 and other reasons, it could not materialise," he said.
"There can be ideological differences but we are not enemies. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was aware of our meeting. We were not sitting in a bunker it was an open meeting," he added.
The Shiv Sena and the BJP, which contested the 2019 state assembly elections as allies, fell out over power sharing formula, with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said it was not ready to accept "less than what was agreed" with the BJP.
The Sena formed the government in November last year with the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress as the new alliance partners.
Raut also spoke on the Shiromani Akali Dal pulling out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance over farm bills.
"The strong pillars of the NDA were the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal. We were in power and opposition together. The Shiv Sena was forced to exit the NDA, now the Akali Dal left it. They were with the BJP since 1996. The NDA has got new allies, I wish them all the best. I do not consider an alliance as the NDA that does not have Shiv Sena and Akali Dal," Raut said talking to reporters in Mumbai.
Days after quitting the union cabinet, Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday decided to pull out of the BJP-led NDA alliance over "Centre's stubborn refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers crops on MSP".