Shiv Sena won’t attend NDA meeting today

Mumbai, November 16

The Shiv Sena will not attend the Sunday meeting of NDA constituents in Delhi on the eve of the winter session of Parliament that begins on November 18. Speaking to the media here, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party walking out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was a mere formality now.

In a jibe at its once close ally, Raut said NDA was nobody’s property. The Sena fell out with the BJP over the Chief Minister’s post, days after the results of the Maharashtra Assembly polls were announced on October 24. Sena’s lone minister in the Modi government Arvind Sawant resigned on November 11.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had demanded that Sawant must resign and that the Sena must quit the NDA if it wanted to enlist the support of the Sharad Pawar-led party in forming the next government.

“I have learnt that the meeting (of NDA constituents) is being held on November 17. We have already decided against attending the meeting, considering the kind of developments that are taking place in Maharashtra..,” Raut said, adding his party had not received an invitation for the meet. The Rajya Sabha MP exuded confidence that the Sena would install its Mayors in the Mumbai and Thane civic bodies in the coming elections. Raut also said the Sena, NCP and Congress had reached a consensus on a common minimum programme.  The Sena, which won 56 seats in the October 21 polls, is the second largest bloc in the Maharashtra Assembly after the BJP (105 seats). The combined strength of the Sena, NCP and Congress is 154. The halfway mark is 145.