Mumbai: The Maharashtra BJP is fuming over Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray’s assertion that Mr Narendra Modi alone could not be credited with the NDA’s Lok Sabha victory, and that the BJP’s alliance partners had played an equally important role.
Maharashtra BJP spokesman Madhav Bhandari said on Sunday that the BJP’s grassroots workers wanted the party to call off any talks with the Shiv Sena immediately. Mr Bhandari said that the Sena leader had “insulted” Mr Modi in the past too. “Time and again, the Shiv Sena leaders have belittled Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP workers cannot tolerate this, and there is a clamour to snap all ties with the Sena and to stop all seat-sharing talks with that party for the state Assembly elections.
Read: BJP workers don't want seat-sharing talks with Shiv Sena: BJP spokesperson
We are confident that the next government in the state will be formed under the BJP leadership,” he said. The Shiv Sena has been an alliance partner of the BJP for the past 25 years, and has played the role of a “big brother” in Maharashtra. But after the death of Bal Thackeray and the emergence of Mr Modi, the state BJP has been demanding equal number of seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Till 2009, the Shiv Sena contested 169 seats, while the BJP got only 119 out of the 288 seats.
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Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, in an interview to a television channel, had said that the next Maharashtra chief minister will be from the Sena. He said that the credit for the Lok Sabha victory cannot be given to Mr Modi alone and alliance partners had played a role too. He pointed out that the BJP did not win a significant number of seats in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and even Punjab, where it had an alliance with the Akali Dal.
BJP leader and Maharashtra in-charge Rajiv Pratap Rudy was unhappy with Mr Thackeray’s statement. “It is desirable to refrain from making such statements prior to elections. The two parties have not discussed the issue of chief minister’s post so far. It will come up only after the elections.”
