Raju Shetti skips Shah's meeting, says busy with farmers' woes

Mumbai: Differences between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partners once again came to the fore after Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana’s (SSS) Raju Shetti refused Amit Shah’s invite for a meeting of coalition partners. Commenting on the same, Mr Shetti said that meeting the BJP national president is not his priority since he is busy with planning the nationwide agitation of farmers. A coalition member missing Amit Shah’s meeting comes as a first since the inception of the BJP-led government in the state. Mr Shah was in Mumbai for the meetings of BJP’s Vistarak Yojana, which also included meeting with alliance partners from the state.

BJP has pre-election alliance with the SSS, Mahadev Jankar’s Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Vinayak Mete’s Shiv Sangram and Ramdas Athavale’s RPI. Mr Shah had invited all the mentioned leaders to discuss political as well as governmental issues.

However, Mr Shetti, who is sulking since the last few months over BJP poaching his colleague Sadabhau Khot, did not attend the meeting. Mr Shetti was in Delhi for planning the meeting of farmer’s organisations from all over the country to plan a nationwide agitation in order to put forth their issues.

When asked about his bunking the meeting, Mr Shetti said, “For me, politics is not important. Issue of farmers are serious and various leaders from all over the country are coming together. I decided to remain present for the farmers.” When asked whether minister of state, Mr Khot is allowed to attend the meeting, Mr Shetti strictly rejected the idea. “I am the leader of my party. I am not going and neither will any other party member,” he said.

On the other hand, three other coalition leaders did attend the meeting. Union minister of state for social justice, Ramdas Athavale later said, “We proposed NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s name for president from NDA. But before that, Mr Pawar’s NCP should join the NDA.” Those leaders who attended the meeting have expressed their support for NDA’s candidate for the presidential election.

Mr Shah is now scheduled to meet Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday as a part of his meeting with alliance partners.