A day after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray announced an end to the party’s 25-year-old alliance with the BJP for the upcoming civic elections across Maharashtra, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut today clarified that his party will not withdraw support from the BJP government in Maharashtra and at the Centre.
“We do not want to destabilise Maharashtra. That is why we will have to maintain an alliance with the BJP in Maharashtra state for some more time,” he said.
Addressing party workers at a rally in suburban Goregaon on Thursday, Uddhav stated that the party was done with allying alongside the BJP and that Shiv Sena would not ally with the BJP in the future.
“We shall not go around with a begging bowl. We have wasted 25 years in this alliance. But no more. Shiv Sena will contest all the civic body elections independently and will not have an alliance with them (BJP) henceforth,” he said yesterday.
Rejecting the charges of corruption in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, he said, “The BJP should tell will it form an alliance with the NCP and Congress if a situation arises?”
Somaiya had yesterday said that ‘the party (BJP) follows a ‘no compromise formula’ when it comes to fight corruption’, apparently hitting out at the Sena. His remark came immediately after Thackeray’s declaration that the party will go solo in the polls.
“If someone is sad about our wish to make BMC corruption free, then no compromise from our side. We’ll bring in transparency,” the BJP leader had said.
Meanwhile, Congress party’s Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam has once again dared the Shiv Sena to withdraw support from the BJP government in Maharashtra and the Centre as well.
“If Shiv Sena has guts, it should withdraw support from State and Centre, otherwise it is just empty rhetoric,” said Nirupam.
Voting for the 10 municipal corporations, including the Sena-BJP controlled BMC, will take place on February 21. Besides the BMC, polling for nine other corporations includes Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur.
Counting of votes will take place on February 23.
Polling for the 26 zilla parishads, which are currently dominated by the opposition Congress- NCP, will be held in two phases on February 16 (for 15 zilla parishads) and on February 21 (for 11 zilla parishads). The counting for these bodies is also slated for February 23.
