Modi’s Mumbai visit sparks talk of Sena-BJP poll tie-up

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 14

Senior BJP leaders in Maharashtra, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, are making a last-ditch effort to stitch up an alliance with the Shiv Sena for the Lok Sabha elections ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Mumbai later this month.

Modi will visit Mumbai on January 23 to lay the foundation stone for the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway.

Sources in the BJP say Fadnavis and other leaders in the state BJP want Modi and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to share the dais at the foundation stone laying ceremony. The appearance of the two leaders together would indicate that they were burying the hatchet ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, sources said.

Mediators of the two parties have held several meetings, but have failed to reach common ground, sources say. Nationalist Congress Party chief Jayant Patil even went on to claim that Fadnavis and Thackeray had a midnight meeting at a Mumbai hotel earlier this month. Though neither the BJP nor the Shiv Sena have commented on the matter, several Shiv Sena leaders have ratcheted up their demands via the media.

The Sena wants the post of Chief Minister should the alliance emerge victorious in the Assembly elections in October 2019, irrespective of the fact which party won more seats. A section of the Shiv Sena is also demanding that both parties carve up the 48 Lok Sabha seats equally.

On the other hand, Thackeray and Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna continue with the attack on the BJP and Modi. Shiv Sena leader and Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam even went on to say that Shiv Sainiks “would bury the BJP”.