BJP president Amit Shah’s “Mission Maharashtra” has not started on a positive note. A day after his much-hyped meeting with ally Shiva Sena’s chief Uddhav Thackeray, the Sena has remained firm on its decision to contest the next lok Sabha elections alone.
“A decision taken by the chief of the party (Shiv Sena) cannot be changed. However, sources said there could be more meeting with Shah and the Sena president. Only the Sena or Uddhav Thackeray will take a decision for itself,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told PTI.
He pointed out that at the party’s national executive meet in January Uddhav Thackeray had declared that the party will fight all upcoming polls without forging an alliance with the BJP. Raut stated this while
trying to dismiss “speculation” that the talks between the BJP and the Sena would culminate in an alliance for the next lok Sabha polls. “The speculation going on outside is not true,” Raut said while blaming the BJP for it.
Asked about the details of the two-hour-long deliberations between Shah and Thackeray last night, the Sena leader said, “(The) two leaders met in a closed room. Third person cannot know what discussions took place.”
However, sources said that there could be more meeting between the leadership of the BJP and Sena over the next few months to resolve the differences.
The BJP has said Shah met Thackeray at his residence ‘Matoshree’ here in connection with the party’s ‘Sampark se Samarthan’ (contact for support) campaign in the run-up to next year’s lok Sabha polls.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya Thackeray too were present at the meeting which lasted about two hours.
A sulking Sena has also been consistently targeting the BJP, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over a host of issues, including high fuel prices, farmers suicides, demonetisation and the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Meanwhile, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday urged former Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata and Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit-Nene “not to fall into the trap of lies” laid by Amit Shah during his visit to the metropolis on Wednesday.
A day after Shah met the leading industrialist and renowned actress separately during his visit to the city as part of the BJP’s outreach programme undertaken ahead of the 2019 lok Sabha polls, Nirupam wrote letters to Tata and Madhuri individually and appealed to them not to lend credence to the claims of the NDA Government’s “achievements” as made by the BJP president.
In his letter to Tata, Nirupam wrote: “I beseech you to understand the truth and not fall for the lies of Amit Shah. I am sending a booklet to you which clearly identifies and explains that the BJP has not been able to do anything for the people of this country in the past 4 years”.
“Mr Tata, you have always supported secular forces all your life and clearly the BJP has spoiled the secular fabric of our country,” Nirupam stated.
In his letter to Madhuri, Nirupam stated: “As an artist, you can understand how different forces work together in the creative space as well and this has clearly suffered during the BJP rule. We should work together to stop these forces from gaining ground”.