JOIN USA day after the Election Commission announced the poll schedule, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday took a dig at resurgent ally BJP), saying that “excessive lust leads to divorce”.
The BJP is looking for a bigger slice of the 288 Maharashtra Assembly seats.
In Mumbai, Uddhav also said the chief minister would be from their party, indicating that he wants to don the hat if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance seizes power again after 1995.
“It is for the people to decide if they trust me. They will decide whom they want as the face (chief minister). I am not hankering after any post but will not shy away from responsibility either,” the Sena chief told reporters.
The Sena’s warning echoes similar trouble the BJP faced in Haryana, which is also going to polls on the same day. Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi had walked out of the NDA, accusing the BJP of demanding more seats than the agreed formula. Now, the BJP is contesting alone in a state.
Uddhav wrote an editorial in the latest edition of Sena mouthpiece “Saamna”, suggesting that all parties of the Maha Yuti (grand alliance) should sacrifice cravings for more seats to throw out the Congress-NCP government out of power.
“For this, all parties must give up the lust for more seats. To say we will stay in the coalition only if we get ‘so many seats’ is not right. Remember, excessive lust leads to divorce. We all want a change of regime. Even if someone has got fewer seats to contest, then too, they will get a proper share in government. But for that, one needs to come to power first,” he emphasised.
The write-up also launched a veiled attack on the BJP, which wants to contest half the 288 seats, since it believes that politically it is in a better position to get more MLAs.