Mumbai: State minister Chandrakant Patil has stated that his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has sought an alliance with the Shiv Sena leadership in coming polls “with folded hands”.
The political heavyweight made this statement while talking to a Marathi news channel in Kolhapur.
Mr Patil’s statement has come at a time when the BJP’s central leadership has asked the state leadership to expedite alliance process.
Asked about the manner in which the BJP is reaching out to the Sena, Mr Patil said, “We are requesting the Sena with folded hands to be part of our alliance. It is not just for us. If we contest alone, Congress and NCP might join hands and form the government. The same misrule of 15 years will be back. People do not want that, so we are requesting the Sena to form an alliance with us,” said Mr Patil.
Mr Patil also challenged the Congress and Nati-onalist Congress Party (NCP) to prove their mettle by contesting the polls solo. “I challenge them: Let’s go in the battle on our own. The BJP will be the number one party in the state. I don’t know whether we will come to power on our own (in the state), but we will be number one,” he said.
Mr Patil added that if all other parties were to go it alone, the BJP would not have any problem with the Sena following the same route.
Mr Patil’s statement has come in the wake of chief minister Devendra Fadn-avis’ recent remarks about being ‘ready to contest the next election alone’.
Mr Fadnavis while addressing the BJP workers in Pimpri and Pune had said that his party is ready to go it alone in the elections.
Also, sources indicated that the BJP’s central leadership also wants to make the picture of an alliance clear by the end of December.
In such a scenario, Mr Patil’s statement of ‘folding hands’ is being seen as part of the saffron party’s constant attempts to woo the Sena leadership into forming an alliance.
In its national executive meeting of January 23 this year, Sena declared that it would contest all the elections on its own henceforth.
It has also begun preparations for going solo in Lok Sabha (LS) elections.
It had contested the Palghar seats Lok Sabha bypoll against the BJP but faced defeat.
