Mumbai: Shiv Sena MLAs are committed to the party and do not need sequestering to keep them from defecting, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said on Thursday, rubbishing reports. “No party will break in Maharashtra,” he asserted.
“Our MLAs are firm in their resolve and committed to the party. Those who are spreading such rumours should worry about their MLAs first,” Sanjay Raut told reporters, adding, “No one can dare to come near Shiv Sena MLAs.”
Despite the denial on record, sources have told NDTV that arrangements have been made to shift Shiv Sena MLAs to a five-star hotel in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, just a few minutes away from Matoshree, party chief Uddhav Thackeray’s home. The MLAs will be moved to the hotel depending on Thackeray’s decision after a meeting he has called at Matoshree.
“Uddhav ji will discuss the Shiv Sena’s policies with his MLAs and give them guidance,” Raut said.
The BJP, specifically its Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, will meet with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari later on Thursday. Maharashtra will go into President’s rule if no government is in place by Friday, before the state assembly’s term ends.
On Wednesday, a BJP leader close to Fadnavis, Sudhir Mungantiwar, had talked about “good news” and said that the Mahayuti (BJP-Sena alliance) would come to power, no matter what.
This was followed by reports that a section of the Sena’s 56 MLAs was in talks to break away and back the BJP, which has 105 MLAs. Together, the two parties (161) won a clear majority in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly but the alliance hit a rough patch over the Sena’s demand for a 50:50 partnership that includes rotational chief ministership.
“We will get good news from Mungantiwar himself that Maharashtra will get Shiv Sena Chief Minister,” Raut said, repeating that his party would form the Maharashtra government with its own Chief Minister.
Raut claims the support of over 170 MLAs but has not specified how. The Sena’s perceived attempts to get the support of the rival Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Congress alliance didn’t produce results with Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s refusal to consider any truck with the long-term BJP ally.
With time running out before the Maharashtra assembly’s term ends on Saturday, the Sena MP said: “There is no deadlock from Shiv Sena. We don’t carry any locks or keys. We only have one key and that is truth.”
