The alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena for the Lok Sabha polls in Mahrashtra today suffered a setback with BJP state unit president Nitin Gadkari objecting to a Sena leader’s comments that his party would back Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar for the prime ministerial post.
The crisis triggered after Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut, a close condidant of the party’s working president Uddhav Thackeray, reiterated the party’s support to Pawar’s candidature for prime ministership.
“If circumstances arise, we will help Pawar to be the prime minister as Sena chief Bal Thackeray has expressed his desire to see a Marathi manoos as the prime minister,” Raut told in a hurriedly called press conference this morning.
“As of now, we are with the NDA and support LK Advani’s candidature for prime ministership,” he added.
Raut also announced that the BJP had agreed to leave the contentious seats of Kalyan in Thane district, South Mumbai and Yavatmal-Washim in Vidarbha region to the Sena and talks are on for the Jalgaon seat.
Reacting strongly to Raut’s statement, Gadkari asked the Sena to clarify, “whether the Sena wholeheartedly accepts LK Advani as the NDA’s choice or still believes in the cause of making a Marathi manoos the prime minister”.
Also Read
“If the Sena doesn’t come out clean on this issue, it will be difficult to continue the alliance,” Gadkari told reporters.
Gadkari also claimed that during his talks with senior Sena leader Manohar Joshi, it was decided that the Sena would either contest South Mumbai or Kalyan, while the BJP would contest the Yavatmal-Washim seat. But there was no dispute on the Jalgaon constituency, he added.
While speaking to Business Standard, a senior BJP leader alleged that infighting within the Sena was behind the current ‘crisis’. Since Joshi and the party’s general secretary Subhash Desai were authorised to hold talks with the BJP, a group led by Raut was trying to sabotage it, he added.
BJP sources also claimed that as the Congress and NCP were about to complete their seat-sharing pact, “the Sena has no option but to go with us, but we fear the Sena and NCP have reached a tacit understanding to help each other”.
In constituencies where the Sena is pitted against the Congress, the NCP will help the Sena candidate in return of a similar favour in its fight against the BJP candidates.