Shiv Sena’s senior leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday accused Union home minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah of keeping Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the dark about the discussion with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on the 50:50 power-sharing agreement and rotational chief ministership.
Raut’s comments came a day after Shah slammed the Sena for not speaking up when Modi repeatedly spoke about Devendra Fadnavis as the chief ministerial candidate for Maharashtra during the campaign for the Assembly elections.
“Even Uddhav Thackeray was saying there would be a chief minister from the Shiv Sena. Why did the BJP not object then,” asked Raut.
“We have the highest respect for Modi and it would have been insulting had we contradicted his statements. It seems that Amit Shah had not apprised Modi of what was agreed in the meeting,” he said.
Without naming Amit Shah, Raut said some elements were “hell-bent on creating a rift between PM Modi and Uddhav Thackeray”.
He also tried to strike an emotional note saying the room in Matoshree where the talks took place was the room of Sena founder Bal Thackeray and virtually a temple for the party.
While the BJP spokespersons in Maharashtra did not comment on Raut’s statements, the state unit released a video clip of a Sena minister, Sanjay Rathod, who during an election campaign had said that he had no doubts that Fadnavis would be the next CM.
{{/usCountry}}While the BJP spokespersons in Maharashtra did not comment on Raut’s statements, the state unit released a video clip of a Sena minister, Sanjay Rathod, who during an election campaign had said that he had no doubts that Fadnavis would be the next CM.
{{/usCountry}}“This video makes it clear that even a Sena minister was confident of Fadnavis becoming the chief minister. So, how can an allegation be made that our leaders tried to mislead or lie on this issue,” said a party functionary.
As the BJP refused to accede to the power-sharing demand, saying there was no such deal between the allies, the Sena kick-started back-channel talks
with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which won 54 and 44 seats, respectively. It even pulled out its lone minister, Arvind Sawant, from the Union cabinet, in accordance with a pre-condition for a possible alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, signalling deterioration of ties with the BJP.
Governor BS Koshyari first invited the BJP and Sena and then the NCP to form the government, but none of them was in a position to cobble together the numbers immediately. The Centre on Tuesday brought Maharashtra under President’s rule after a recommendation from the Governor.
Now, the Sena, NCP and Congress have begun deliberations on a common minimum programme (CMP) to form the government.
The CMP will state the agenda of the proposed government and the power-sharing structure.