Peace after BJP initiated talks, says Shiv Sena

MUMBAI: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis’ announcement that the BJP will not contest the BMC mayoral polls or any other committee post in the BMC might seem as a climb down. However it is the Shiv Sena that has blinked.

BJP leaders said the announcement by Fadnavis on Saturday came after parleys with Sena that has given a commitment that it would not pull out from the government. BJP ministers including Sudhir Mungantiwar and Chandrakant Patil held talks with Sena leaders, including MP Anil Desai and Uddhav’s personal assistant Milind Narvekar, over the past two days.

Desai said he was only involved in ‘intra party discussions’. “Whatever role was assigned to us by Uddhavji we have done that only,”said Desai.

Sena leaders said that they had to climb down for a number of reasons.

“There was no other option for us, we had met Congress leaders in Delhi for a tie up in the BMC, however in spite of a number of senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra asking the leadership to support us, they did not take a call. We also tried the NCP, but they were also non-committal,”said a Sena leader. He however claimed that the talks were initiated by the BJP and not the Sena.

Acknowledging BJP’s rise, the Sena leader said, “The BJP is strong, what is the use of pulling out from the government now and having midterm elections and seeing the BJP coming back to power on its own.” The compromise between the two partyies was visible on Sunday.

Fadnavis while speaking to reporters said: “We are together in the state government, Uddhav has said that he supports the government.”

Sena ministers like Ramdas Kadam who were frequently talking before the elections about carrying their resignations in their pocket, also seemed to mellow down. “The resignation letter is not with us. We have kept it aside,”said Kadam.