Shiv Sena chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held an hour-long discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi in June last year regarding a possible alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed rebel Sena MP Rahul Shewale on Tuesday.
Mr. Shewale further said that while Mr. Thackeray had tried to seek an alliance with the BJP following the revolt of Sena MLAs last month, Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut’s continuing truck with the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ coalition parties – the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (BJP) and the Congress – as well as the past rancour in the Sena’s dealings with the BJP leadership frustrated such efforts.
Mr. Shewale was speaking in Delhi after 12 of the 19 Sena Lok Sabha MPs shifted to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s rebel camp on Tuesday.
“At a meeting of Sena MPs, Uddhav Thackeray himself revealed that he had had an-hour long discussion with PM Modi in June last year [during Mr. Thackeray’s visit to Delhi at the time of the Covid-19 second wave] regarding an alliance with BJP. However, the subsequent suspension of 12 BJP MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly by the MVA government had soured the central BJP’s leadership with the Shiv Sena,” claimed Mr. Shewale, who has been named as the new group leader of the party in the Lok Sabha of the rebel Shiv Sena camp.
Efforts to re-ally with BJP
Stating that Mr. Thackeray had met with the Sena MPs at least four-five times after the MLAs revolt on June 21 last month, he said that the MPs had put forward problems faced by them in their constituencies owing to NCP leaders.
“In these meetings, he [Mr. Thackeray] said he was ready for a union with the BJP. He further said while he had tried contacting the BJP, response was not forthcoming from their side. As a result, Mr. Thackeray had urged us MPs to use our sources to get in touch with the BJP leadership,” Mr. Shewale revealed, adding that he himself had met with current Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in this regard.
However, given that the Sena leadership had not positively responded to the BJP’s overtures for an alliance after the 2019 Assembly election, the latter were unwilling for a union with Mr. Thackeray.
Justifying the revolt of the MLAs and MPs, Mr. Shewale said that today, the rebel camp was in effect doing what Mr. Thackeray himself had wished – the Sena’s re-alliance with the BJP.
Raut’s ties with MVA
He further accused MP Sanjay Raut sitting on MVA meetings even as the Sena MPs were trying to broker a deal for an alliance with the BJP.
“Because of Mr. Raut’s closeness with the NCP and Congress, a doubt crept in our minds [and the BJP leaders] that while we were trying for a Sena-BJP alliance on one hand, here he was busy cosying up to the NCP and the Congress and batting for their candidates in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential polls,” Mr. Shewale said.
Despite the BJP-Sena alliance securing the mandate following the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, Mr. Thackeray had fallen out with the BJP over the Chief Minister’s post and had acrimoniously severed ties with the latter while embracing the ideologically opposed NCP and Congress to form the MVA coalition.
Meanwhile, Uddhav camp loyalist, MP Arvind Sawant mocked Mr. Shewale’s claims, remarking that if Mr. Thackeray was indeed eager for an alliance with the BJP as per the rebels’ version, then why did the MPs and MLAs move away from Mr. Thackeray’s side.
“These lies are merely to mislead the public. The question only is, why these lies now? We know they [rebel faction led by Eknath Shinde] are scared of central agencies loosed upon them by the BJP at the Centre… They should not try to justify their actions. The rebels forget how the BJP harassed Uddhav Thackeray during these last two-and-a-half years,” Mr. Sawant said.
‘BJP killing off party’
Earlier, before the MPs formally announced their rebellion in Delhi, Mr. Thackeray, at a meeting of the Sena’s north Indian office bearers at the Sena Bhavan in Mumbai, lashed out at the BJP for effecting the split in the Shiv Sena.
“The split in the Sena was not caused by rebel MLAs but by the BJP, which is killing-off the party... The BJP is instigating a chicken fight. If one chicken dies, they will throw the other in jail,” the former CM said.
Alluding to the ongoing fight over control of the party’s bow and arrow symbol, Mr. Thackeray, after a meeting at the Sena Bhavan, said while the BJP could take as many ‘arrows’ (rebel leaders) from the Sena’s quiver, the bow would always remain with him.
In another development, Mr. Shinde’s rebel camp sacked ex-Minister Aaditya Thackeray’s cousin, Varun Sardesai, as secretary of the party’s youth wing - the Yuva Sena, appointing Kiran Sali in his place. The move is seen as another step to purge the party of Uddhav Thackeray’s loyalists. The Shinde faction had already announced a new national executive of the party on Monday.
