Mumbai:
Faced with an increasingly recalcitrant Shiv Sena that seems to be spurning every other offer made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis late on Tuesday night called on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Sarsanghachalak, Mohan Bhagwat to seek his guidance on the way out from the gridlock. Sources informed that Bhagwat merely underscored the need to maintain the alliance with the Sena.
Notwithstanding the advice given by RSS chief and the calls for mediation by senior BJP union minister Nitin Gadkari, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut yet again on Wednesday morning has spurned the offer of talks from the BJP. Speaking to newspersons early in the morning, he reiterated the Sena contention that no fresh proposal was made by the Sena to the BJP and whatever was decided before the Lok Sabha polls while firming up the Mahayuti alliance should be done accordingly.
Pointing to the Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and Yuva Sena president Aditya Thackeray interactions with farmers in distress due to unseasonal rains destroying crops, Raut made a bizarre claim that the farmers in distress wanted the Thackeray’s to install a Sena Chief Minister in Maharashtra. On the issue of imposition of Presidents Rule if there was no solution to the impasse, he termed it as an unfortunate step for the state.
A fortnight after the assembly election results were announced on October 24 in which BJP won 105 seats, Sena 56, Congress 44 and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 54 seats. Given the hung-verdict, it was expected that the BJP-Shiv Sena government was expected to form the government. However, the Shiv Sena has given the formula to the BJP for sharing the post of Chief Minister for two and a half years, which has been rejected by the BJP. Therefore, the vexed issue of government formation has got more entangled than ever before.
Amidst the deadlock between the Sena-BJP over government formation, NCP President Sharad Pawar called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi. On the other hand, state NCP president Jayant Patil opined that the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra would be from the Shiv Sena.
Following the hectic political developments in New Delhi, on Tuesday, the tone and tenor of the BJP and Shiv Sena leaders had mellowed down. State BJP president Chandrakant Patil and Minister for Water Resources Girish Mahajan said that both the BJP-Shiv Sena were positive about forming the government. Chandrakant Patil contended that Fadnavis will become the Chief Minister of the alliance. A statement to this effect was also issued from the BJP office in this regard. After all the day long political developments on Tuesday, Chief Minister Fadnavis suddenly arrived at Nagpur at 9.30 pm. He then straightaway proceeded to hold close-door talks with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. It may be recalled that earlier, on September 22, 2018, when the Chief Minister had visited the RSS headquarters, the RSS had opined that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance should not be broken. One year after that incident, the Chief Minister is once again facing a political turmoil, he was once again at the doorsteps of the RSS.
