BJP, Shiv Sena pact talks on hold

MUMBAI: The twice-spurned BJP in Maharashtra has put all talks for an alliance with the Shiv Sena on hold after the latter reiterated that it would go solo in the 2019 Parliamentary and Maharashtra assembly polls. State finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar was BJP’s emissary to hold talks with the Shiv Sena to strike an alliance.

However, last week, Munga ntiwar was rebuffed twice. In the first instance, when he planned to meet Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, he was told that the latter was not available. And later, even before the second meeting could be arranged, Uddhav announced while touring rural Maharashtra that the party would go solo. Uddhav’s latest statement has irked the BJP with the party saying that it would not hold talks with the Sena as of now.

“An alliance has to happen between two parties, it cannot happen because one party wants it. There can’t be an alliance unless both parties agree to it,” Mungantiwar told ET. When asked whether BJP was confident that it would come to power in 2019 by going solo if the Sena doesn’t join it, the finance minister said, “Why talk of confidence, we went solo in 2014 also, there was no alliance with Sena then too, yet we came to power.”


On the prospects of an alliance with the Sena in future, he said, “If they (Shiv Sena) want it then it will happen.”The BJP’s efforts to have a pact with Sena comes in the backdrop of the Congress-NCP leadership in the state talking of joining forces for the 2019 polls.

In 2014, when BJP came to power in the state both the BJP and Sena, as well as the Congress and NCP contested separately. If the Congress and NCP join forces, it would be difficult for BJP to come to power in the state as it would have to take on three parties –– Congress-NCP and the Sena.