Mumbai: Though Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis may have amended his statement arguing that he was not privy to what transpired between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray regarding equitable sharing of power and chief ministers post, it did have a salutary effect on the Sena. A rankled senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut hastened to add that he was not baring his fangs to the BJP. Sources in the BJP argue that now talks will not take place until and unless the constant barrage of criticism aimed at its party leadership in Sena mouthpiece “Saamana”.
On Tuesday, Fadnavis made his and BJPs displeasure known at the criticism of its leadership appearing in Saamana, which has Raut as its Editor. He made it clear that this time the Sena has gone overboard in its sustained diatribe aimed at the BJP, ever since the assembly election results were out on October 24. Sources in the BJP disclosed that the only stumbling block before the party leadership is the Sena criticism. When almost all the power sharing and portfolio sharing was almost decided the sudden Sena criticism aimed at extracting more pound of flesh from the BJP has apparently not gone down well with the BJP leadership.
Sources in the BJP further added that party now appears to be in no mood to yield to any of the pressure tactics that the Sena is employing. Fadnavis has made it amply clear that the BJP is in no mood to handover the chief ministers post to the Sena. The mood now in the BJP camp is that the party might not even consider offering the Deputy Chief Ministers post and the deputy speakers post in the legislative assembly. In 2014, the BJP had kept the deputy speakers post in the legislative assembly vacant for five years without offering the post to the Sena.
Fadnavis made it clear that it was not the worry of the BJP as to which post the Sena offers to its scion Aditya Thackeray in the government. The BJP which might have considered relinquishing some of the key ministries it had held in 2014, is in no mood now to do so. The Chief Minister categorically ruled out the possibility of the 1995 power sharing agreement between the two forming the basis of the current power sharing agreement. Back in 1995, while the Sena had its chief minister, the BJP had some key portfolio’s like Home and Finance with it.
What the Sena is not keen on harping on the 1995 power sharing formula, is that the principle agreed then was that whosoever had the largest numbers (MLAs) would be the natural claimant to the Chief Ministers post. Right now both the warring saffron allies are busy enlisting support of Independent’s and other smaller regional parties. Fadnavis claimed that out of the 13 Independent MLAs who have been elected 10 of them are in touch with the BJP and have agreed to extend their support to the party
On the other hand the Sena so far has claimed that two Independent’s – Ashish Jaiswal and Narendra Bhondekar have pledged their support to the Sena. Besides this, Bacchu Kadu and his Prahar Janashakti Party (PJP) MLA Rajkumar Patel have extended their support to the Sena. In further attempt to bolster its tally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) backed the lone MLA of Krantikari Shetkari Paksha (KSP), Shankarrao Gadhak from Nevasa constituency in Ahmednagar district has pledged his support to the Sena.
