Sanjay Raut: BJP can’t win 2019 polls without allies

Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut, on Tuesday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot win the 2019 Lok Sabha polls “if it fights alone.” Mr Raut’s statement is important when seen in the context of the Gujarat poll results, in which it emerged winner in a close contest with the Congress.

When The Asian Age asked him if his party was considering a pre-poll alliance with the BJP again, Mr Raut replied, “The Shiv Sena party president, Mr Uddhav Thackray will take the decision at the proper time. I can’t say anything on that issue. But it is very difficult for BJP to win if fight alone. ”

After BJP’s victory in the 2014 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi  had announced a ‘Congress mukta Bharat abhiyan,’ but the party has gained strongly in Gujarat and seems to have emerged as energetic and aggressive after Mr Rahul Gandhi took over as a party  president. The 2019 Loksabha elections are unlikely to be a cake walk for it.  

The party is preparing to go into the Lok Sabha polls alone and has not given any importance to its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies in the last 3-4 years, except during the presidential elections. But now the situation has changed, leading Mr Raut to say that, “If BJP will fight alone, they will not get a clear majority. Now they have to take NDA allies together.” Many BJP leaders have been attacking the Sena and are not in favour of an alliance. But a few leaders, especially from Mumbai, who need the Sena’s help to win, want a pre-poll alliance, sources said.

The CM had brokered the alliance in the 2014 assembly elections when he was party president. He made adjustments with the Sena to run the government. Now he will have to take a call on the alliance with if the party is looking for a big victory once again in the state, said sources.