Mumbai: Amid reports of an uneasy truce between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has cleared his stand on the alliance and the prospect of a party member becoming chief minister in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls.
In a three-part interview to Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Uddhav Thackeray said that the alliance with BJP is ‘purely ideological’ as it is based on Hindutva.
However, Uddhav Thackeray admitted that the Shiv Sena made “compromises” while forming the alliance with the BJP but that the compromise was “for Maharashtra”.
Of the 288 Maharashtra assembly seats, the Shiv Sena will contest 124, smaller NDA allies such as RPI and RSP will contest 14, and remaining seats (150) will be fought by the BJP.
Uddhav Thackeray said, “We are contesting a lesser number of seats because [Maharashtra CM Devendra] Fadnavis and [state BJP chief] Chandrakant Patil requested me to understand their problem.”
While he remained mum on what portfolios have been divided between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray said that “power and responsibilities will be shared equally”.
Uddhav also cleared the air on Aaditya Thackeray’s chief ministerial aspirations.
“Aaditya is contesting elections but that doesn’t mean that he will immediately become CM or deputy CM… He wants to take some legislative experience. He is interested in that,” Uddhav said.
