BJP can only dream of alliance: Sanjay Raut

Mumbai: A senior Shiv Sena leader has said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can only dream about a repeat of the alliance that swept the 2014 elections as the situation is different now.

Party MP Sanjay Raut said on Monday that though the BJP is keen on repairing the alliance, Sena is not interested.

Political sources said BJP efforts to initiate alliance talks with the Sena during the proposed meeting of finance minister and BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar with Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray would come to naught because the party has already decided to face the 2019 elections alone.

Recently in Mumbai, BJP president Amit Shah said that his party was hopeful that it would fight the general election in alliance with the Sena. Mr Mungantiwar said he would meet Mr Thackeray on his return from abroad and raise the alliance issue for which he was already agreed. But Sena leaders are denying the possibility of alliance talks. Mr Raut told The Asian Age: “The file of the alliance is already closed for us. We have started preparations to go solo in the elections as declared already.”

Sena leaders said that Mr Thackeray would never initiate talks with Mr Mungantiwar as he was the party chief and would only speak with Mr Shah or Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Mr Thakcery might meet Mr Mungantiwar and would ask him to talk with Sena ministers and other leaders, they said. In today’s situation, it’s impossible to initiate talks of the alliance, they said.

Meanwhile, Mr Thackeray slammed the BJP though an edit in the party organ Saamana, saying that the BJP is dreaming of victory again like in 2014 which is impossible in this
situation.

Mr Shah is now talking alliance with Sena, which he had not done in earlier Assembly elections, it said.