We’ll support Sena for state: Agri Sena chief

Agri Sena chief Rajaram Salvi who resigned as the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice president said on Wednesday that henceforth he would support the Shiv Sena. He, however, said that he would not join the Sena.

“We have decided to support Shiv Sena for the development of Maharashtra, especially the Konkan region. I believe that Maharashtra has got an able leadership in Uddhav Thackeray. So, we will work to strengthen him,” said Salvi, who resigned from the BJP last week. However, he preferred not to blame BJP for his decision. “I got everything in BJP. I do not have any grievances against it. But, I wanted to work independently.”

Salvi had supported Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Sanjeev Naik in the Lok Sabha by-election in Thane in May because the latter was an Agri. “I was always with the Sena. But it was a need at that time to support Naik,” he said. But he said in the same breath: “Had I met Naik much earlier, I would not have supported him.”

Agri Sena is an organisation of the Agri community, which is influential in Konkan and some parts of Thane district. It was formed 20 years ago.