BJP and Shiv Sena still undecided

Uddhav Thackeray

Even as the Congress and NCP are steps ahead of their political rivals, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have not yet found a path that can unite them before elections. The Sena reiterated on Thursday that it wanted the chief minister's (CM) post in Maharashtra if the BJP wished its support in a pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha. The BJP hasn't taken an official stand but is making covert efforts to reach out to the estranged ally.

Unconfirmed information on Thursday said that the Sena had given BJP 48 hours to accept its conditional deal and end the impasse, or else it would start an election campaign this weekend.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis curtailed his district tour and returned early on Thursday evening to Mumbai to reach out to Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil accompanied the CM. BJP president Amit Shah is reported to have told the CM to get the negotiations to their logical end.

Fadnavis said after the meeting that demands that the Sena had made about issues regarding farmers etc would be decided soon. "Today's was a positive development in our alliance talks. We will take this forward," he said, adding that they did not talk much in view of the militant attack in Kashmir.

Sena MP Sanjay Raut underlined yet again, that his party wanted its CM in Maharashtra, just like the BJP has allowed other alliance partners in states like Bihar and Punjab. He said the arrangement for the Assembly polls must be decided before the parties go to the Lok Sabha elections. In response, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari dismissed Raut's argument. He said the CMs the Sena leader had spoken about were elected on the basis of the number of elected members their respective parties had in the Assembly.

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