As the ties between the friends turn foes the Shiv Sena and the BJP are getting worse each day, Sena on Tuesday once again attacked BJP of throwing Sena out of the NDA without any intimation to them.
The Sena in party mouthpiece Saamana’s editorial said, “If you thought we had gone against the NDA, why didn’t you have the courage to discuss it in an NDA meeting? Did the BJP took NDA’s permission before going out with Mehbooba Mufti or with Nitish Kumar?”
Sena also reiterated its stand on Hindutva ideology and in one-upmanship on the issue told BJP that it espoused Hindutva “at a time when nobody touched it, when many of you (those in BJP) were not even born”.
Sena also said that on Balasaheb Thackeray’s death anniversary the BJP removed Sena from NDA. “When everyone was against Modi, Balasaheb protected him. But on his death anniversary, you threw the Sena out of NDA?”
On the death anniversary of the Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray on Sunday, the former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis came at Shivaji Park to pay his tributes after Sena patriarch Uddhav Thackeray and his son, Aaditya Thackeray, left. Fadnavis was subjected to sloganeering from the Shiv Sainiks (in Marathi) – “Sarkar kunauchi. Shiv Sena chi (whose government? Shiv Sena’s)”. They also taunted Fadnavis by shouting his assembly poll campaign slogan, ‘I will be back (as chief minister)’.
The Sena and the BJP fought the state polls together and emerged with 161 seats in the 288-member house but fell out after a bitter dispute over allocation of portfolios and sharing of the Chief Minister’s post. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray then approached the opposition – the NCP and the Congress – to form an unlikely alliance and stake claim to form the government, something the BJP declined to do when approached by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, citing its lack of a majority.
The winter session of the parliament will see Sena sitting in opposition benches in the Rajya Sabh. Party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said on November 17.
“We have got to know that the seating arrangement of two Shiv Sena MPs has been changed in the parliament,” said Raut.
The Sena also did not attend the NDA meet kept to discuss the agenda ahead of the winter session.
Sena leader and party MP in the Rajya Sabha Raut said, “I have learnt that the meeting (of NDA constituents) is being held on November 17. We had already decided against attending the meeting considering the developments in Maharashtra. Our minister resigning from the central government.”
Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant who had been the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises at the Centre, resigned on November 11 after fall out with the BJP in Maharashtra.
The Congress and NCP won 44 and 54 seats, respectively, in the last month’s polls.
President’s rule was imposed in the state last Tuesday, after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari sent a report to the Centre, stating that formation of a stable government was impossible in the current situation despite all his efforts.
With the picture still not clear, but talks are on between the Sena, Congress and NCP to form a government in Maharashtra.