Mumbai: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party held talks with the estranged ally Shiv Sena for being a part of the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, sources said that no concrete proposals were forwarded by the BJP.
According to sources, Sena has proposed that it be given the post of deputy chief minister in the cabinet. Meanwhile, Sena chief Uddhav Thackerey has told BJP emmissaries that talks should ideally take place between the party presidents and not through party representatives.
On Saturday, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy visited Thackeray's residence. "I will try to meet BJP president Amit Shah after returning to Delhi. I will also speak to Narendra Modi and Nitin Gadkari. I will explain to them that if we take along Sena with us, it will ensure a stable government in Maharashtra and will also be a good thing for Hindutva," Swamy said.
However, BJP was quick to brush the visit as one in the former Union minister's individual capacity.
"BJP has nothing to do with the visit. Swamy went to Matoshree, the Thackeray family residence in suburban Bandra today, in his individual capacity," a senior state BJP leader said.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and state Cooperatives Minister Chandrakant Patil met Thackeray at Matoshree on Friday evening for one-and-a-half hours. Before leaving for Matoshree, Pradhan had said BJP had an "open mind" on holding the talks.
Fadnavis, who is on a tour of Vidarbha, had said thta the BJP wants the Sena to be part of the government, and expressed confidence that the initiative to bring it on board would succeed.
(With additional information from PTI)
Comments
0 comment