Mumbai: Trouble is brewing ahead of Maharashtra's Assembly elections later in 2014, between allies the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena. There is no consensus on who should be the chief ministerial candidate with both parties looking for the upper hand.
Shiv Sena's decision to stake claim for the chief ministerial post for its supremo Uddhav Thackeray has not gone down well with the BJP. "The chief minister of Maharashtra will be from Sena. And it will be Uddhav Thackeray," said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.
But the BJP replied by claiming that the CM candidate is yet to be decided. "The alliance has still not decided who the CM will be. Shiv Sena would want Uddhav to be CM but the alliance will decide unanimously," said BJP leader Vinod Tawde.
Sena leaders insist on continuing the deal made between the late Bal Thackeray and late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan years ago whereby the Sena contested more seats and automatically got the chief minister's post in 1995. But given its impressive tally in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP wants to renegotiate.
"There is no CM we have said or suggested from the side of BJP. Those who will get larger number of MLAs will take decision for CM," Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde, who died in an car accident in New Delhi on Tuesday morning, had said on Monday
Miffed over getting only one ministerial berth in the Union Cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shiv Sena had even taken a dig at Maharashtra BJP leaders in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamna.
"Munde is like Sharad Pawar. He is physically in Delhi, but his heart is in Maharashtra. Devendra Fadnavis has said Maharashtra has loaned Munde to Delhi for three months, and will take him back with interest," editorial said.
It is a case of united in Delhi but divided in Maharashtra. Sensing a possibility of returning to power after a decade, the Shiv Sena clearly wants to be the big brother in Maharashtra and protect its home turf especially after its oldest ally made a pitch for change in the power equation.
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