A day after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said that Maharashtra's next Chief Minister would be from his party, senior Maharashtra Minister Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday made one more public overture to the Sena, saying that the two saffron parties should first fight the polls together and decide on the Chief Minister’s choice later.
Amid repeated assertions by the Sena that it would go it alone in all the forthcoming elections, Patil made the most of Thackeray’s statement on Tuesday that the Sena would install its Chief Minister after the forthcoming State Assembly polls, to impress upon the Sena chief that it was in the mutual interest of the two saffron parties that they contest the polls as an alliance to ensure against the division of saffron alliance votes and decide on the chief minister's choice after the Assembly polls.
Talking to media persons at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra, Patil said: “It is but natural that both the parties want their persons as chief minister of the state. let us decide on the choice of chief minister after the 2019 Assembly polls. let us first fight the elections together to ensure against the Congress and NCP benefitting from the division of our votes. After the elections, let’s sit across and decide on the choice of the chief minister”.
This is not for the first time that Patil has reached out to Thackeray. Even after the recent Palghar lok Sabha by-polls in which the BJP had trounced the Sena, Patil had tried to ease the tension between the two saffron alliance partners by saying that if there was a break-up in the electoral tie-up between the two parties, the Congress would return to power in the state. “Hence it is essential for the two saffron parties to contest the polls as an alliance,” Patil had said.
Through his outreach after Thackeray’s statement on Tuesday, Patil is trying to explore if the BJP can win over the Shiv Sena by keeping open the choice of chief minister’s post. In effect, he is indirectly suggesting that the BJP is not averse to giving more number of seats to the Sena – a prospect that would open up the possibility of the Sena winning more seats than the BJP and staking a claim for the chief minister’s post after the Assembly polls.
Addressing his party workers at the Sena’s 52nd formation day function at the Mumbai Exhibition centre here on Tuesday, Uddhav had said: “We shall overcome all challenges coming our way and install our chief minister in the state. I am not for unfurling the saffron flag merely for the lust for power. I don’t want install any chief minister who has lust for power. I need for the sake of power”.
After the Sena’s youth wing president Aditya Thackeray reiterated that the Sena would go it alone in all future elections, Uddhav had stated in his address: “Electoral victories never made us arrogant. Nor did defeats unsettle us. On the contrary, we have faced many challenges in the past. We have learnt to face all kinds of challenges. This time around, we shall blunt all kinds of challenges and capture power in the state and install our chief minister. For the purpose, I need *the full cooperation of all the Shiv Sainiks”.
It may be recalled that the BJP and Sena had contested the October 2014 State Assembly polls on their respective strengths and entered into a power-sharing arrangement after the polls which saw the BJP emerge as the single largest party with 122 seats and Sena come second with 63 seats in the 288-member House.
In the 2014 Assembly polls., the BJP posted a superlative performance solely due to the “Modi wave” that prevailed then. However, the BJP realises now that it cannot repeat its performance in the October 2019 Assembly polls, unless it stitches an alliance with the Shiv Sena. On its part, the Sena is no mood to play the BJP ball.