The ‘dinner diplomacy’ between top Shiv Sena and BJP leaders ended in a deadlock with the BJP refusing to withdraw its claim over Chimur.
Prashant Hamine/ Sanjay Sawant
The ‘dinner diplomacy’ between top Shiv Sena and BJP leaders late on Wednesday ended in a deadlock with the BJP refusing to withdraw its claim over the Chimur Assembly constituency.
Interestingly, both the saffron allies are now staking claim over ex-Independent MLA and ex-minister Dr Rameshkumar Gajabhe while the man in question prefers to contest the ensuing by-election on a BJP ticket.
Sources in the BJP said the party had based its claim over the fact that the neighbouring three assembly constituencies of Chandrapur, Saoli and Brahmpuri were held by the BJP. The Chimur Lok Sabha seat is also held by the BJP besides holding five out of the eight zilla parishads.
A senior BJP leader said after sitting ex-Sena MLA Vijay Waddetiwar quit the party, he took away all the Sena support base with him to the Congress camp.
“With no party apparatus practically left, there is no point for the Sena to stick to its guns,” the BJP leader remarked. The venue of the dinner meeting, which lasted till midnight, was changed at the last minute and was held at Kohinoor hotel in Dadar. While Sena was represented by president Uddhav Thackeray, Rajya Sabha MP Manohar Joshi and senior leader Subhash Desai, the BJP was represented by state president Nitin Gadkari, senior leaders Gopinath Munde and Vinod Tawde.
Sources revealed that while the Sena claimed that Gajabhe was their candidate, the former MLA indicated his preference to contest the by-poll on a BJP ticket or else contest the election as an Independent candidate.
Uddhav Thackeray ruled out the possibility of the party relinquishing its claim over the seat, which its ex-MLA Vijay Waddetiwar won in 2004.Uddhav, however, said seat-sharing between the saffron parties was applicable only for the assembly elections, and not by-elections.
Thackeray added that there was no need for the BJP to take a hard stance on the issue. On the Sena candidate, he said the decision on the candidature would be taken after consulting the party’s local unit.
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