Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has hit out at Shiv Sena on Monday and said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is not helpless and is not ‘desperately’ seeking an alliance with the Shiv Sena for the upcoming state Assembly and General Elections.
His remarks came after Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut stated that Shiv Sena was the “Big brother in Maharashtra and will continue to be so. There is no proposal from the BJP to form any alliance with the Shiv Sena, nor we are waiting for any proposal to be offered to us,” Raut stated.
While speaking in Jalna at a function of the state BJP working committee, Fadnavis said the BJP president Amit Shah has already made it clear that “if friends come along with us, well and good, or else we will contest alone and support those whoever stand in support of PM Narendra Modi.”
The Maharashtra CM stated that: “The BJP is not helpless. Yes, we want an alliance with the Shiv Sena but we are not desperate for it. We want the alliance as custodians of Hindutva, as a strong force against corruption and for the development of the nation. We don’t want the power to go in the hands of people who looted the nation for long. We’re trying to get into an alliance but we are not helpless. BJP is the party which reached 200 from 2.”
In the last Assembly elections, the BJP won 122 seats whereas Shiv Sena managed to bag 63 seats. The BJP formed a government under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavi.