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No BJP role in Maharashtra political crisis, claims Chandrakant Patil
On Pawar’s statement about the BJP playing a role behind Shinde’s rebellion, Patil said, I feel Pawar and Sena’s Sanjay Raut exercise their right to freedom of speech excessively. I am not watching daily news so unaware of what is happening in Sena
Amid the banner of revolt raised by Eknath Shinde within Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Maharashtra state unit chief Chandrakant Patil denied that his party has anything to do with the ongoing political crisis in the state.
Speaking in his hometown Kolhapur during his visit to the city on Friday, Patil said that the saffron party was not supporting the rebel group currently in Assam’s Guwahati, as accused by the Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.
Incidentally, Shinde, while addressing the rebel MLAs in his camp in Guwahati, said in a veiled reference to the BJP that a “national party” has supported his rebellion. On Pawar’s statement about the BJP playing a role behind Shinde’s rebellion, Patil said, “I feel Pawar and Sena’s Sanjay Raut exercise their right to freedom of speech excessively. I am not watching daily news so unaware of what is happening in Sena.”
Patil denied reports that the BJP has received an offer from the dissenting Sena group to form a government in alliance with it.
“The BJP has no hand in whatever is happening in Sena. There are many national parties in the country. You will have to ask Shinde which party is supporting them,” Patil told reporters in Kolhapur on Friday.
According to Patil, there has been no proposal so far from anyone to BJP. Whenever there is any proposal, a core committee of 13 members sit and discuss it before forwarding it to the central committee.
“We have not received any offer from the rebel group. … Our style of working is studying in advance and in detail which we will do in this case as well,” he said.
Regarding Devendra Fadnavis rushing to Delhi, the state BJP chief said, “It is his routine visit. There are many issues that need to be taken up with the party leadership and therefore he keeps visiting Delhi.”
Patil pointed out that he had predicted the MVA government’s fall due to its internal contradictions. “We are not trying to bring the government down. I had been saying that the MVA government will fall due to its internal contradictions, which is turning true now,” he said.
