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A large number of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders at party's executive meeting here on Thursday demanded the party should break its over 25-year-old alliance with the Shiv Sena and contest the coming Assembly election in Maharashtra on its own. They also said that BJP, which bagged 23 seats after contesting in 24 constituencies in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, will be able to bag 145 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly by going solo.
State BJP spokesman Madhu Chavan initiated the debate and a host of other speakers toed Chavan's line, making a strong pitch for a solo poll fight. Chavan and other party leaders claimed that BJP had to make a lot of compromises while following alliance politics.
BJP's aggressive stand has put Shiv Sena on defensive. Sena leader Divakar Raote said his party president Uddhav Thackeray is having a direct communication with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and party general secretary in charge of Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudi. He indicated the fate of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will be decided at that level.
During the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, BJP leader late Gopinath Munde took the initiative to broaden the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance by roping in the Republican Party of India, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and the Rashtriya Samaj Party to form the MahaYuti (grand alliance). They together bagged a record 42 of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
BJP leaders at the state executive meeting said the party should not play second fiddle to Shiv Sena even though the party wants to keep its alliance with the Sena intact.
State BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis, however, snubbed party leaders who pitched for breaking the alliance with the Shiv Sena. He said Shiv Sena has remained with BJP during good and bad times and it won't be possible to break the alliance.
He urged party leaders not to become complacent after the Lok Sabha poll victory but continue to work hard to dislodge the 15-year Congress-NCP government in the state.
