Statements on next CM nothing but poll strategy, says Chandrakant Patil

The Shiv Sena has been demanding that both parties will share CM s post for a duration of 2.5 years each.

Newly-appointed state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil Monday said the Shiv Sena should realise that if the opposition Congress-NCP contested the upcoming Assembly elections together then it could be a matter of concern for both the saffron parties, in case they contested it separately.

The BJP-led alliance is confident of getting over 1.7 crore votes and winning at least 220 of the 288 Assembly seats in the coming elections. However, if the BJP and Shiv Sena contests separately, while the Congress and NCP forge a pre-poll alliance, then it would be a cause of concern, Patil told reporters in Pune.

Explained

Fight for big brother status

The BJP and Shiv Sena had parted ways in 2014 ahead of the Assembly elections despite contesting the Lok Sabha polls together that year. The Sena, which enjoyed a big-brother status among the two, lost the position to the BJP which won more seats than the Sena in the 2014 Assembly polls. Ahead of the 2019 Assembly election, the fight for establishing supremacy is again gaining momentum with the Sena eying the chief minister s post and hoping to win more seats than the BJP.

In a veiled warning to an increasingly assertive Sena, Patil said while BJP was aware of the situation that would arise if Congress and NCP came together for Assembly elections, the Shiv Sena, too, should have that realisation .

The Shiv Sena, which allied with BJP for the Lok Sabha elections almost five years after snapping ties with it just before the 2014 Assembly polls, has been demanding that both parties will share CM s post for a duration of 2.5 years each. Party leader and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, who is on a statewide Jan Ashirwad Yatra, recently had told The Indian Express that the next CM will be from his party.

There has been discussion among BJP chief Amit Shah, Chief Minister Devendra Fadanavis and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, which no one else knows. However, the statements made by other political leaders about the next chief minister (of Maharashtra) to be of their party is nothing but a strategy for the forthcoming elections, state BJP chief said.