As talks between Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to stitch up an alliance to form the Maharashtra government reaches its final stage, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari said today that even if they managed to form the government in Maharashtra, this ‘opportunistic’ alliance will not last beyond six to eight months.
In an interview during electioneering in Jharkhand, Gadkari said the alliance forged by these “ideologically different” parties was just to keep the BJP out of power, which was rather unfortunate, said the Union minister.
“Opportunism is the base of their alliance. The three parties have become united with the only motto to keep the BJP out of power. I have doubts about whether this government will be formed… Even if it is formed, it will not last beyond six to eight months,” Gadkari told PTI.
Read: Shiv Sena will not join hands with BJP even it offers Indra’s throne: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut
Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have been discussing the modalities to form the government in Maharashtra, but have been unable to come up with anything concrete until now.
Asked if the BJP will try forming the government in case the alliance breaks, the minister said in case of such circumstances, the party will decide its future course of strategy. “Anything can happen in cricket and politics”, he quipped adding that it was beyond his comprehension why the three parties will forge an alliance to form the government despite huge ideological differences.
The base of Shiv Sena and the BJP alliance was “Hindutva”, he said.
Unfortunately, Sena in its lust for power gave away its ideologies. According to media reports, the three parties had reached a broad consensus on a Common Minimum Program (CMP) where Hindutva has been dropped like a hot potato and the cause of minorities, farmers have taken the spotlight. Shiv Sena’ motormouth, Sanjay Raut had also come out swinging batting for the tenets of ‘secularism’.
Talking about Shiv Sena’s claim on rotational CM’, the Union Minister furthered, that the claim was found untrue when he enquired.
“As per party President and others, the party’s stance on chief minister was to be decided later but things took an unfortunate turn, Gadkari said. The chief minister should be from the party which got a higher mandate, he said adding that the decision as to who will be the chief minister lies with Maharashtra party president, state chief minister and the BJP president. “We did our efforts,” Gadkari said.
Meanwhile, after senior Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Friday reiterated that all the three parties, including the Congress and the NCP, had agreed to a Shiv Sena Chief Minister, now there seems to be turbulence within the Sena for the CM post.
Hours after names of Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant emerged as frontrunners for the post of the chief minister, Shiv Sena MLAs at a meeting at Matoshree stressed on Uddhav Thackeray’s name for the top post. Later, NCP too lent support to the legislator’s demand. “Congress-NCP are of the view that Uddhav should be CM. Not sure if we will support any other name for the post,” Chhagan Bhujbal said.
