Congress: No question of joining hands with Shiv Sena

Mumbai: The Congress has reacted cautiously to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s suggestion of forming an alliance of non-BJP parties, including the Shiv Sena, to defeat the BJP.

 The state Congress on Monday clarified that there was no such proposal as there were strong ideological differences between the Congress and the Sena.

The party’s state chief, Mr Ashok Chavan on Monday said, “The question does not arise of joining hands with the Sena. The Congress and Sena have major ideological differences and the Congress is firm about it. The decision about any alliance will be taken at the national level of the Congress party,” he said.

Meanwhile, in his  speech in Pune on Sunday, Mr Pawar said that going by votes in the Palghar Lok Sabha byelection, the Sena, the Congress and the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) had more votes than the BJP. He even suggested that if all these parties joined
hands, they could defeat the BJP. During his address, Mr Pawar said, “They (BJP leaders) claimed that they have won Palghar. But that is not true; if you add the votes of the Sena, BVA and Congress, then BJP is nowhere. So, all the parties should join hands in the coming elections.”

Ever since Mr Pawar made such a statement, there has been buzz of the Sena joining an anti-BJP alliance. Already, the Sena has declared its intention to contest all elections independently. While the BJP top leadership is said to be pursuing the Sena as it does not want to break the alliance. With Mr Pawar’s statement perceived as an indirect invitation to the Sena to join an anti-BJP alliance, Congress reacted safely.

The Maharashtra Congress has already decided to form a grand anti-BJP alliance in Maharashtra. The report regarding this has already been submitted to the party high command.