After the recent meeting of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray and MP Sanjay Raut, Sharad Pawar revealed that it seems like Shiv Sena is no longer interested in continuing its alliance with BJP.
This is not the first time that the party has indicated its differences with BJP, earlier also on several occasions, Thackeray indicated that he does not want Shiv Sena to be involved in bearing the blame of the bad policies implemented by BJP. In the past few weeks, Sena has repeated;y attacked BJP on its policies and also released booklet titled Ghotalebaaz BJP (Scamster BJP) that names BJP leaders and ministers allegedly involved in scams.
In a statement to the press, Sharad Pawar said that “During the meeting, I got a feeling that Uddhav was not interested in continuing with the government, he seemed dissatisfied. I told Thackeray to declare Sena’s position first.”
Though there is confirmation from Sena’s side of any such meeting with Nationalist Congress Party chief. However, sources in the party told that the meeting between Pawar Thackrey and Raut took place on the same day when the Shiv Sena Chief held meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Also, a senior party official on Thursday said informed that Shiv Sena is planning to contest 50-60 seats in Gujarat assembly elections on its own, without allying with BJP.
The party has also created a high-level team led by Gujarati Wing Coordinator and senior municipal corporator from Oshiwara, Rajul Patel and Hemraj Shah. In a statement to the press, Patel said that “We shall put up candidates in these constituencies, spread mainly between Surat to Ahmedabad, which has a large Maharashtrian-origin population, and even extending to pockets beyond up to Rajkot.”
Explaining the reason to target this region, Patel further added that this area accommodates a number of people from north Maharashtra, who are settled or working in different parts of south Gujarat and nearing areas, where the party plans to contest from. They are strong believers of our Hindutva agenda and we are going to concentrate on this large chunk, in the elections. However, Shiv Sena will not enter into any alliance with any party, though the final decision will be taken only by our President Uddhav Thackeray,” she added.
Shiv Sena, who originally had the image of an anti-Gujarati party, gradually softened towards the state and also gave top posts to the Gujaratis including in the party, as municipal corporators, legislators and even in Parliament. This move od Shiv Sena contesting the Gujarat polls without any alliance is being speculated as the party’s long-term strategy to counter the twin influence of BJP Party President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who seem to enjoy stronghold n Gujarat.