The editorial mainly questioned the leadership of the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday released another firebrand editorial piece in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', launching a fresh set of assaults at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The editorial mainly questioned the leadership of the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), even daring to ask on what basis was the Shiv Sena expelled from the coalition.
The 'Saamana' editorial went on to elaborate on the fact that at a time when no one was willing to talk about nationalism and Hindutva in politics, it was the Shiv Sena that stood by Jan Sangh to build up the grassroots level movement on which the BJP now stands. It asked, therefore, on what grounds the BJP could expel Shiv Sena from the alliance. "On what basis was the Shiv Sena expelled from the NDA? This is the beginning of egoistic and arbitrary politics," the editorial stated.
In a unique draw of comparison, the Saamana editorial said that the BJP was like the Sultan of the Ghurid Empire, Muhammad Ghori and said that those who are stabbing from the back will be given a fitting reply from Maharashtra.
Earlier on Monday, soon after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar's meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss Maharashtra political situation, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut the Maratha stalwart at his residence in Delhi.
Blaming the BJP for failing to form the government without taking its name, Raut expressed confidence that the state will soon have a government.
"The responsibility to form the government was not ours, the ones who had that responsibility ran away, but I am confident that soon we will have a government in place," Raut said.
The meeting came soon after Pawar met Mrs Gandhi in Delhi to brief her about the situation in Maharashtra.
In the recently-concluded assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 105 seats while the Shiv Sena has 56 MLAs in the 288-member assembly. NCP and Congress won 54 and 44 seats, respectively.
Senior leaders of the three parties - NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena - had met to finalise a draft Common Minimum Programme (CMP) last week and the meeting between Sonia and Pawar was supposed to take the final call on the draft agreed upon for the proposed coalition government in Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena and BJP contested the recently-held assembly elections together but failed to reach an agreement for government formation. After BJP failed to stake claim to form the government, the Shiv Sena has tried to rope in NCP and Congress for an alliance government.
President's Rule was imposed in the state last week after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's report to Centre that no stable government was possible in Maharashtra under the current political scenario.
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