'Even if Sena and BJP come together, won't contest jointly'


PTI | Mumbai | Updated: 28-07-2020 15:51 IST | Created: 28-07-2020 15:51 IST
'Even if Sena and BJP come together, won't contest jointly'
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Senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday appeared reaching out to the estranged ally Shiv Sena, a day after the party president J P Nadda asked state cadre to endeavour to form a government in Maharashtra on its own strength. Patil also said the BJP, being a national party, can't share the post of chief minister with any regional party, because if it does so then it will have to replicate the same formula in states like Bihar and Haryana.

"If the BJP's parliamentary body recommends the state unit to forge an alliance with the Shiv Sena to protect the interest of the state...I must make one point clear that even if both the parties (the BJP and the Sena) come together, we will not contest any election jointly in future," Patil, who heads the state BJP unit, told a Marathi news channel. The BJP and its old ally Sena fell out over sharing the post of chief minister in Maharashtra after the 2019 Assembly elections.

The Sena then went on to join hands with the NCP and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister. Patil seemed to underline compulsions of the BJP vis-a-vis sharing the post of chief minister.

"We had been liberal with the Shiv Sena in the last five years. We were even ready to share more portfolios after the 2019 Assembly polls, but the BJP, being a national party, can't share the post of CM with any regional party. If we do so, we will have to replicate the same formula in states like Bihar, Haryana and others, he said.

The BJP shares power with regional allies in these states. In a virtual address from Delhi, Nadda on Monday told the party workers from Maharashtra to get ready to "bring the party to power on its own" in the state.

He had also asked the Maharashtra party unit to strengthen its IT cell and expose the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government's "failure"..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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