Mumbai: Shiv Sena on Monday reiterated its demand for an equal share of power in Maharashtra and asked the BJP to “speak the truth on the 50:50 power sharing formula” agreed between Amit Shah and Uddhav Thackeray.
The demand by Sena MP Sanjay Raut came shortly after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and senior Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote met state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, amid the ongoing tussle between the ruling alliance partners over forming the next state government.
A Raj Bhawan official said the meetings were “courtesy calls” by the two leaders, who met Koshyari separately.
Raut also told a TV channel that there was “nothing political” in Raote’s meeting with the governor.
Asked what would happen if the BJP were to renege on the power sharing formula agreed between a meeting of Shah, Uddhav and Fadnavis ahead of this year’s Lok Sabha polls, Raut said, “BJP evokes name of Ram. You (BJP) are going to build the Ram temple. Ram was ‘satyavachani’ (embodiment of truth), so they should speak the truth on this (formula)”. “You can tear a paper but you can’t delete this record (of the power sharing formula agreement between BJP and Sena),” Raut said.
Earlier on Monday, the Sena borrowed a famous dialogue from blockbuster movie Sholay to target the Centre over the economic slowdown, seeking to know why there was so much “silence” in markets on Diwali and wondered if worse days were ahead. “…Itna sannata kyon hai bhai?” (why is there so much silence) is the question resonating everywhere on “silence” over the future of the country and Maharashtra, the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
A BJP leader said the “caustic” Saamana editorial and Raut’s remarks have created “bitterness” ahead of Shah’s Mumbai visit on Wednesday. (PTI)
