Mumbai: The Shiv Sena wants to go solo for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2019, which will be held next year, with an aim to damage the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A Shiv Sena leader said, on the condition of anonymity, that the party would not be affected much if it goes it alone. We have 18 MPs and only one minister in the Union government, so we don’t stand to lose much in the Lok Sabha elections. But the BJP wants to ruin Shiv Sena, so we will ruin its chances in several seats.”
The BJP won 23 seats in the state in the last general elections, but MP Raju Shetti — now the president of the Swabhimani Paksha — is no longer with the saffron party.
Stating that the BJP fared well because of the ‘Modi wave’, the Sena leader claimed, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah don’t have good relations with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. Shiv Sena is of the impression that the BJP want to ruins the party as it has done with regional parties in other states. Though Shiv Sena is a part of the NDA, the BJP has not treated it well. Now the Shiv Sena wants to show its strength.”
The Sena minister at the Centre has the heavy industries portfolio, which is the least-important department. The BJP will suffer more because of triangular fights, said the leader.
