The Mahayuti (mega-alliance) of Shiv Sena, BJP and three other opposition parties in Maharashtra today got a boost with the Maratha organisation Shivsangram, headed by NCP leader Vinayak Mete, joining it.
Mete announced his decision to join the Mahayuti in the presence of Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, BJP leader Gopinath Munde and RPI leader Ramdas Athawale here this evening.
"I decided to support Mahayuti as I was fed up with the inaction of the Congress-NCP government in granting reservations to the Maratha community," Mete told reporters.
Mete was recently served a show-cause notice by NCP after he alleged that senior NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal was against the reservations for the Maratha community.
There are indications that Mete would now ask his supporters to back Munde, who is contesting from Beed Lok Sabha constituency, and would himself contest from Risod in Vidarbha in the Assembly elections later this year.
Munde had last week expressed confidence that his party would break the "backbone" of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, as many of its leaders were on the way to BJP.
"In the coming days, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, many more NCP leaders will join BJP," Munde had said while welcoming Fulchand Karad, a prominent NCP leader from Beed, into the saffron party.
NCP recently also sacked Vijaykumar Gavit, a senior minister in the state government, after his daughter joined BJP and got the Lok Sabha ticket from Nandurbar.
Earlier this month, NCP leader Kapil Patil from Bhiwandi in Thane district quit the party to join BJP. Before that, last month, NCP MLC Sanjay Kaka Patil joined BJP. He is now contesting against the sitting MP from Sangli and Union minister of State for Coal, Pratik Patil.
