Shinde group's bomb - 'Thackeray wanted to patch up with BJP'

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: In an explosive revelation, the group of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has claimed that the former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was keen to patch up and ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Shinde group's newly-named Shiv Sena Leader in Lok Sabha Rahul Shewale said that Thackeray had allegedly discussed the issue of alliance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an hour and also with the party leaders.

"At our meetings recently, Thackeray had stated how he had made all possible efforts to rebuild the alliance with the BJP, but could not do it. He also asked us (MPs) to make our own attempts for a tie-up," Shewale added. He said that the Shiv Sena is "still part of National Democratic Alliance" since it has not given any letter snapping its ties with the BJP-led coalition at the Centre. The contentions by Shewale — virtually accusing Thackeray of surreptitiously sabotaging the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress MVA alliance — came in the presence of Shinde who announced the entry of 12 Lok Sabha MPs to his group on Tuesday evening. The statements kicked up a massive storm in the Shiv Sena and its allies who hit back rubbishing Shewale's utterances.

Dismissing the claims, Sena Chief Spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said that the alliance was broken in 2014 and 2019 by the BJP. "We were together in the 2014 assembly polls, but the BJP broke the 'Hindutva alliance'. Later in 2019, the BJP snapped ties by going back on its promises. We wanted to have the alliance but it's the BJP which severed the ties. We are not responsible for it," Raut asserted. He questioned Shewale and other MPs who joined the Shinde Group today, that "how many of them spoke out when Uddhav Thackeray and his family were being reviled in the lowly language", and reiterated that the Sena chief took all major decision consulting his partymen and also the MVA leaders. (IANS)

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