BJP president Amit Shah is set to meet Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday in Mumbai amid worsening relation between the two parties and the Sena’s declaration that they would contest the 2019 lok Sabha polls alone. The meet could have a major bearing on both Maharashtra and national politics. Shah will also travel to Punjab on Thursday to meet SAD leaders.
These back-to-back meetings are significant against the backdrop of reports that NDA allies are upset with the BJP due to its “big brotherly” attitude. The exit of the TDP from the NDA in March and constant friction with the Shiv Sena, the largest NDA ally, and loss of three major lok Sabha bypolls in UP and one in Maharashtra to the combined Opposition, have set the BJP leadership on the fast track to put the NDA house in order well before 2019 lok Sabha polls.
Nitish Kumar-led the Janata Dal (U) and Ramvilas Paswan-led lJP are also putting pressure on the BJP over seat-sharing arrangement. Shah is attempting to re-build confidence among the allies who, for one or other reason, may be upset with the “big brother”.
Shah is scheduled to meet Akali Dal leaders Prakash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir on Thursday where discussion around sharing of 13 lok Sabha seats in Punjab may figure in, according to sources. The ouster of the Akali Dal by the Congress in the Assembly polls may set the tone for seat-sharing formula.
The BJP president will be closeted with the Shiv Sena president at the latter’s residence at Mumbai on Wednesday. The meeting is being viewed as significant as it comes days after the two bickering allies contested the Palghar bypolls (which the Sena lost to the BJP) separately. The Shiv Sena had later described the BJP as “the biggest political enemy”.
“Amit Shah sought time to meet Uddhavji. Accordingly, an appointment of tomorrow evening has been given to him,” was a rather blunt comment of Sena MP Sanjay Raut. He even questioned the need for Shah to meet Thackeray after a gap of four years.
However, senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said Shah’s meet with Thackeray is a part of the party’s ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ (contact for support) nationwide campaign and that it has nothing to do with the recent lok Sabha bypolls in Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya seats in Maharashtra.
Raut said the Sena showed it can go into the poll battle alone by contesting the recent Palghar lok Sabha bypoll, despite the fact that it was defeated.
“We showed that we can fight alone when we contested the Palghar bypoll. We may have lost, however, the message has been sent across. We received lakhs of votes (in Palghar) where we had never contested an election,” Raut pointed out while talking to reporters in Mumbai.
Raut said the NDA allies were one after the other deserting the BJP. There was angst against the BJP, thus the party might have started a reconciliatory measure, he said.
Asked if the Sena will continue with its stand of going solo in all the forthcoming elections, Raut said party chief Thackeray had taken a call on not forging an alliance after due considerations.
Despite the overt denouncement by its longest ally, party leaders in the BJP assure that the Sena would stick around with the BJP in the loK Sabha polls. “Some fights are signs of a happy and healthy family… there is going to be no divorce,” quipped a senior BJP MP from Mumbai.