"BJP Not Desperate": Devendra Fadnavis On Shiv Sena's "Big Brother" Claim

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday countered the Shiv Sena’s claim of being “the big brother” in the Sena-BJP alliance, saying his party is not seeking a tie-up desperately.

He was speaking at the valedictory event of a day-long meeting of the state working committee of the BJP in Jalna.

“BJP does want an alliance with the Shiv Sena but we are not desperate for it. We want the alliance as custodians of Hindutva and a strong force against corruption,” he said.

The Sena had said last January that it would go it alone in all future elections.

Earlier Monday, Sena’s chief whip in Parliament and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said his party is the “big brother in Maharashtra and will continue to be so”.

“There is no proposal from the BJP to form any alliance with the Shiv Sena….We are not waiting for any proposal to be offered to us,” Mr Raut added.

Talking about the BJP-led government’s performance in the last four and a half years, Mr Fadnavis said that “potholes of the last 60 years cannot be fixed within five years.

“We need a continuation,” he said. Till 2014, the BJP and Sena, allies for long, had an understanding where the former contested a larger share of Lok Sabha seats and the latter contested a greater number of Assembly seats in Maharashtra.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, which the two parties fought separately, the BJP won 122 seats against Sena’s 63.

The Sena later joined the government in the state as a junior partner.