Not Siding With the Opposition on Land Bill, Maintains Shiv Sena

New Delhi: Shiv Sena today dismissed suggestions that it was siding with the opposition on the Land Bill to corner the government, but said it has given amendments to the measure in the larger interest of farmers.

Party leader Anandrao Adsul, who had attended a meeting with Opposition leaders at NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence yesterday, told PTI today that Mr Pawar had merely called him for some informal chat and he was not aware of any Opposition parties.

"Pawarji a senior leader and whenever he tells us to informally meet, we do so out of respect," he said, suggesting that the NCP chief seemed to be playing some mischief.

"He is perhaps doing like what his party did by unilaterally announcing support to the BJP government in Maharashtra last year, when Shiv Sena was still not part of the coalition and was having strained ties with the BJP," Mr Adsul said.

He maintained that Shiv Sena's stand on the bill is clear from day one as it has expressed a host of reservations against the proposed amendments in the earlier land Act and party chief Uddhav Thackeray had even written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sources said that Sena had given an amendement pitching for retaining consent clause in the interest of farmers.

Ever since the NDA government brought the land ordinance seeking changes, Sena has been making public its reservations to key provisions of NDA land bill.

Sena had yesterday huddled with Opposition parties in a meeting at Pawar's residence in the backdrop of the Opposition trying to work out a common strategy to thwart the proposed changes in the 2013 Act which are up for consideration before a Joint Committee of Parliament.

The meeting was attended by Anandrao Adsul from Shiv Sena, Congress members including K V Thomas, Kalyan Banerjee from Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress MP Vara Prasadarao Velagapalli and Md Salim from CPI(M) among others.

The strategy of Congress is to somehow get a majority of members in the panel to oppose the main amendments being brought by the government in the UPA's Land Act.

In the meeting at Mr Pawar's residence, Congress, Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) said that they are for "total withdrawal" of the NDA's land bill.

Shiv Sena is not seeking total withdrawal of NDA's bill but has its reservations against the amendments, which include removal of provisions of consent clause and social impact survey from the bill that existed in UPA's land law. Yesterday's meeting at Pawar's residence was aimed at exploring the possibility work out a joint amendment, the sources said.