Doughty fighter, Munde had CM ambitions

Only two days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a meeting with Munde and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari apparently to discuss the strategy ahead for the Maharashtra Assembly polls at a time when the Shiv Sena was getting uneasy over BJP's plans.

Munde's feeling was that his strategy which paid dividends in the Lok Sabha polls could be repeated in the Assembly polls at a time when anti-incumbency  feelings against the 15-year rule of the Congress-NCP alliance was growing.

The growing confidence of the BJP was but natural after the Modi wave had worked wonders in Maharashtra, the second largest state in the country having 48 Lok Sabha seats, in which the combine had bagged 42 seats.

It was also the first election after the death of Shivsena supremo Bal Thackarey.

Munde used to count the solid backing by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a shield at a time when he had some powerful detractors and felt that this could help him sail through.

Shiv Sena is the oldest ideological ally of the BJP and has been playing complementary roles to each other. BJP had been given more seats to contest the Lok Sabha polls while Sena has been allocated more seats for the state Assembly.

Only yesterday, the Shiv Sena, had in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana' taken a dig at Munde over his chief ministerial ambitions.

“We have always had this understanding with BJP, that the prime minister will be from the BJP and the chief minister in the state will be from Shiv Sena and all our cadre, everyone wants Uddhav Thackarey to be chief minister if our grand alliance comes to power,” Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut had said yesterday.