BJP leaders in Maharashtra are confident that Shiv Sena will agree to a post-poll alliance with it in the BMC, notwithstanding the latter's public assertion that it will not go for any such understanding.
Shiv Sena and BJP are fighting the February 21 polls to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) separately for the first time in over two decades.
Ever since the Sena snapped ties with the BJP last month, it has gone on the offensive against the latter and also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, this has not dimmed hopes in the BJP camp that the Uddhav Thackeray-led party will approach it for a tie-up to rule the country's richest civic body after the poll results are announced on February 23.
A senior BJP minister said his party was already in touch with the Sena ministers (both the parties are still in an alliance in Maharashtra and at the Centre) and that informal parleys were on.
"The formal post-poll alliance talks between the saffron allies will commence after February 23," he said on condition of anonymity.
"The Sena is not going anywhere. They will come to us. I have spoken to their ministers and I know that an alliance will definitely happen. If it does not happen, there will be a political earthquake in Maharashtra," added the BJP minister.
Meanwhile, in a significant statement, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, talking to a Marathi television news channel, said, "BJP should not stretch things to the breaking point or else, the (state) government will not last its full term."
Asked about the constant threats being issued by Thackeray, senior Sena ministers and leaders about the party pulling out of the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government, the BJP minister played down any such possibility.
"Nobody is leaving the government. If they really wanted to withdraw support, they would have done so the day Uddhav Thackeray announced there will be no 'yuti' (alliance) in future with the BJP."
He opined that by constantly stating that there will be no alliance in future with the BJP, the Sena was "damaging itself politically".
"But, it is 100 per cent sure that they will join hands with the BJP again as everything will not be in the hands of Uddhav Thackeray in future. His ministers, MPs and MLAs do not want to leave the Fadnavis government," he said, adding that the Sena ministers were issuing threats of withdrawing from the BJP-led government only to enthuse their rank and file ahead of the crucial BMC polls.
He claimed that Sena ministers had assured him that the party will be in the government till its term ended (in 2019).
(REOPENS BOM28)
"Because of the Sena's constant aggression, BJP
cadres, too, have become aggressive," he said.
"We have told them keeping the Government stable for five years is their (Sena's) responsibility and its BJP's responsibility to ensure they retain power in next elections."
The BJP Minister made light of the Sena singing the praises of Congress. He said the regional outfit lost its credibility when it backed the Congress in the 2012 Presidential elections and supported NCP chief Sharad Pawar for the Prime Minister's post in the past.
The BJP Minister termed the Sena's tirade against his party and its leaders as a "very common practice" of the Mumbai-based outfit during elections.
