The constant squabble between the two allies BJP and Shiv Sena over the chief ministerial post and power-sharing formula in Maharashtra refuses to subside even after almost two weeks since the election results were announced on October 24.
Now, in another desperate attempt to end this imbroglio with the BJP, Sena has today written to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat seeking his intervention and asking Gadkari to initiate negotiations between BJP-Sena.
Kishore Tiwari, one of the advisors of Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray has specifically requested Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to placate the two sparring parties by brokering a deal between them, claiming that Nitin Gadkari has the potential to iron out the issue within two hours.
Tiwari said: “I have written a letter to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to initiate and send Nitin Gadkari for negotiations. Nitin Gadkari will be able to resolve the situation within two hours.”
Claiming that Gadkari is being “sidelined” by the BJP, Tiwari said that if the party or Amit Shah authorises Gadkari to intervene, he can resolve the impasse in two hours.
Tiwari, the founder of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, an NGO which highlighted large-scale suicides by farmers in Maharashtra and especially those from his Vidarbha region, had switched over from the BJP to the Shiv Sena ahead of the Assembly polls.
Meanwhile, Sena’s MP Sanjay Raut, on the other hand, reiterated today that the state’s next chief minister will be from his party. “The decision on Maharashtra will be taken in Maharashtra, the chief minister will be from the Shiv Sena,” Raut told reporters in Mumbai.
Flummoxed over their deportment on this impasse, Shiv Sena has been swaying both ways. While on one hand, Sena has been insistent on adhering to what it says is a prepoll agreement of 50-50 formula wherein both the parties will have a chief minister for two and a half years each, it was previously seen softening its stance on the demand for rotational chief ministers and 50:50 power-sharing, blaming the media for raking up the issue.
Moreover, in its desperation to get its grip on Maharashtra, Sena had purportedly sent out a number of feelers to Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to threaten the BJP into submission.
Today also through their latest editorial published on Saamana, Shiv Sena once again was seen taking a jibe at the BJP chief minister candidate Devendra Fadnavis by calling him an ‘outgoing chief minister’.
While Sena has been moving back and forth on the power-sharing formula, the larger party of the coalition-the BJP has been adamant on continuing with Devendra Fadnavis as the state’s chief minister.
Multiple high-profile meetings in New Delhi and Mumbai on Monday, including one between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, failed to give any indication of breaking the 11-day-long deadlock over government formation in the state.
