FM Arun Jaitley's visit to Baramati, stay at Sharad Pawar's residence raises eyebrows

MUMBAI: Is Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s visit to Baramati and staying at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar a message that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to dump its ally the Shiv Sena? A number of leaders from both the BJP and Sena say it is not true and that the alliance will not face any problems till at least 2017 when the Mumbai civic elections are due.

A number of BJP leaders said that Jaitley’s visit to Baramati where he praised the Baramati model of development and he was also put at the NCP leader’s home was nothing but a signal to the Sena to mend its ways and that the BJP could have other options.

“While the visit was planned in advance, the fact is that ties between our party and the Sena are not cordial at all. It is meant to be seen as a signal that we could have other options. The Sena, which has been making statements against our party and the PM himself, should shut up,” said a BJP leader. He said the elections for the cashrich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) body in 2017 would be the time when the Sena would be pulling the plug if at all.

"The Sena is in existence all this while because it is in power in the BMC. Remove the Sena from the BMC and the party would struggle to survive,” said a BJP leader.

It is a battle of egos and wits which the Sena is all too familiar, not wanting to be seen as taking a step behind, Sena has once again tried to put Modi in a tight spot by again bringing up his Gujarat riots past.

Editor of Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ and party MP Sanjay Raut in his column on Sunday has hit out at Narendra Modi where he draws attention to Modi’s interview given to a news channel after the 26/11 terror attacks. Raut recollects in the interview that when the anchor asks what would Modi’s reaction be if he was leading the country and if the terror attack happened. To which Modi responded

saying, “What would I have done, I would have done the same thing that I did in Gujarat, it would not have taken time for me.”

Raut reminding Modi of his past is meant to be seen a Sena riposte to the Jaitley-Pawar meet. Sena leaders said the Sena could match the BJP in the battle for egos and one upmanship. A Sena leader said the party would however not go overboard in its criticism of the BJP.