We cheated Sena but can come together soon: BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhir Mungantiwar in a startling statement said that though his party “cheated” the Shiv Sena, the two estranged allies

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhir Mungantiwar in a startling statement said that though his party “cheated” the Shiv Sena, the two estranged allies can come together any time soon with the help of a “Jyotiraditya Scindia-type rebel”. The former Maharashtra finance minister made the statement in the Assembly on Thursday.

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During his speech on the state budget, when a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader questioned why had BJP ditched the Sena despite their long-standing friendship,Mungantiwar remarked that the BJP had committed a mistake by not forming the government with the Sena in the state, and the NCP reaped an advantage out of it. “But the day is not far when we will rectify our mistake and come together. There will be a Jyotiraditya in Maharashtra to help us [BJP-Sena] come together,” he said.

Looking at the treasury benches, the BJP leader said that NCP’s “friendship” with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is just three months old, but the relationship between the BJP and Sena is three decades old. However, later he told the media that he made the comment in a lighter vein.

The ties between the BJP and Shiv Sena were snapped last year in November after the Assembly poll results over sharing the chief ministership on equal terms. Sena formed the government under party chief Thackeray after joining hands with the NCP and Congress.

Mungantiwar had said last month that the BJP was ready to support the Shiv Sena if the Congress and NCP walked out of the government over opposition of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).