File photo of Shiv Sena leader, Sanjay Raut
Smarting over a tie-up between the Congress and BJP coming together to share power in Gondia district council, Shiv Sena has blamed the BJP for not giving due importance to their allies.
Sena leader Sanjay Raut, told reporters today, "The importance of NDA has gone down. Maybe the new government does not feel the necessity of the NDA as it enjoys total majority... The last such meeting (of NDA) was held a year ago while electing Modi as the PM."
A few days ago in Gondia, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had emerged the single largest party with 20 seats in the 53-member council. The BJP had bagged 17 and Congress had won 16 seats. However, the Congress had a post-poll alliance with BJP, bagging the council president's post while the saffron party got the vice president's post, leaving the NCP out of power.
Sena is an alliance partner in the BJP led Maharashtra government.
The editorial in Sena's mouthpiece, Saamna said, "You never know who can join hands with whom in politics. Friends of 25 years can become enemies, and enemies from birth can suddenly become friends. Everyone is surprised with the alliance of a pure party like BJP with the Congress."
Shiv Sena and BJP had been alliance partners for 25 years till they called it off due to differences over seat sharing just before the Maharashtra assembly elections in 2014. BJP went on to form the government, and Shiv Sena joined the alliance a few months later the same year in December. Since then, it has been an uneasy alliance between the two parties.