Maharashtra Congress leaders want party to support Sena

Mumbai: While the Nationalist Congress Party has cleared its position that the BJP and Sena government has the mandate to govern the state, state Congress leaders have still not lost hope.

On Wednesday Congress Rajya Sabha MP Hussain Dalwai met Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut where the two discussed how the Congress could give support to the Sena minus the BJP.

Emerging out of the meeting, Dalwai said, “We don’t want the state to have a chief Minister from the BJP. The mandate is not for the BJP to have its Chief Minister,” said Dalwai.


Dalwai said that Sharad Pawar and Congress President Sonia Gandhi would soon take a decision. "Under any circumstances there won’t be a government of the BJP," he added.

He also hinted that the Congress would join with the NCP to help the Sena come to power. “We won't allow President's rule in Maharashtra. We will also not allow the BJP government to come to power,” said Dalwai.

Dalwai reiterated his point today saying that the Sena was not as communal as the BJP.

A sizeable section of Congress leaders have been advocating that the party support Sena even though the Delhi leadership is not keen.

In the morning Congress leader Yashomati Thakur met NCP Chief Sharad Pawar and apparently again pitched the issue of joining forces with the NCP to support a Sena led government said Congress leaders.

Meanwhile the BJP’s core committee is meeting at the Chief Minister’s residence to discuss the impasse with Sena.