Sena not attending NDA meet on Nov 17: Raut

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena will not attend the Sunday meeting of NDA constituents in Delhi on the eve of the winter session of Parliament beginning on November 18.

Speaking to reporters here, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut also said that the Uddhav Thackeray-led party walking out of the BJP-headed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) remains a formality now.

In a sharp jibe at its estranged ally-turned-foe, the BJP, Raut said the NDA was not somebody’s property.

“The Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal were equally important founders of the alliance,” he added.

The Shiv Sena, a long-standing constituent of the NDA, fell out with the BJP over sharing the chief ministerial post, a few days after the results of the Maharashtra assembly polls were announced on October 24.

The echo of the worsening relationship between the two parties reverberated at the national level too, with the Sena’s lone minister in the Modi government, Arvind Sawant, resigning on November 11.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had set pre-conditions that Sawant resign and the saffron party walk out of the NDA bloc if it wants support of the Sharad Pawar- led party in forming government.

“I have learnt that the meeting (of NDA constituents) is being held on November 17. We had already decided against attending the meeting considering the kind of developments that are taking place in Maharashtra…our minister resigning from the Central government,” Raut said.

The Sena leader further said he had learnt that his party had not received an invitation to attend the NDA meet.

“It is alright, if it has not been sent. We had already decided (against attending the meeting),” Raut said.

Without naming anyone, Raut said nobody can claim “ownership rights” on the NDA.