Maharashtra minister Abdul Sattar says Ashok Chavan himself had met Eknath Shinde with alliance proposal

Ashok Chavan. File Pic

Maharashtra minister Abdul Sattar on Thursday claimed that when he was in the Congress earlier, party leader Ashok Chavan had met Eknath Shinde with a proposal to forge an alliance with the Shiv Sena in the state, when the latter was in power with the BJP in 2014.

His statement came in the wake of some regional news channels reporting Chavan's "revelation" that Shinde, who is currently the state chief minister, was part of the delegation that had met him with a proposal to form a Sena-Congress alliance government.

As per the reports, Chavan also claimed that Shinde had come with a proposal to snap ties with the BJP, after which the former had asked him to consult Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and if he agreed, he (Chavan) would talk to the Congress's central leadership, but nothing happened after that.

Sattar, a legislator from the Shiv Sena faction led by CM Shinde, was here on Thursday to attend 'Hindu Garva Garjana', a convention of the party.

Replying to a question asked by reporters here on Chavan's claim, Sattar said it was actually Chavan and he himself who had approached Shinde with a proposal to form a Sena-Congress alliance for government formation.

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"When I was in the Congress, Ashok Chavan and I had requested Shinde to form a government," the Agriculture Minister said.

Shinde was then a minister in the government led by Bharatiya Janata Party's Devendra Fadnavis and Chavan was the president of Maharashtra Congress.

When asked about this, Uddhav Thackeray loyalist and Sena spokesperson Vinayak Raut said, "The claim made by Ashok Chavan as reported by regional TV channels is true. It was Eknath Shinde, who would criticise the BJP when he was a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government, and wanted the Shiv Sena to step out of the government."

"Only the ED director will know how he became so close to the BJP," he added.

In 2014, the BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP had fought the Assembly polls independently. Eknath Shinde was a Leader of Opposition for a month after Fadnavis govt came to power in October 2014 and the Sena had joined the dispensation in December that year.

Meanwhile, Sattar also said that Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray should accept the leadership of Shinde, otherwise his (Thackeray's) faction will be wiped out.

"He has to look at his Sena through binoculars," he said.

Sattar said Shinde is a true Hindutva leader, who is taking forward the legacy of Sena founder Bal Thackeray. "BJP is our big brother and our ties would remain intact," he added.

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