Picking up from where Shiv Sena boss Uddhav Thackeray had left it yesterday, his party continued to play hardball over its initial demand for the chief minister’s post on Friday and delivered a sharp warning to the BJP that it could look at other political formations if its demand for the chief minister’s post wasn’t accepted.
“If Shiv Sena decides, it’ll get the required numbers to form a stable government in the state,” Sanjay Raut told news agency ANI on Friday amid the ongoing and increasingly bitter tussle with the BJP over the Sena’s demand for equal sharing of posts and responsibilities, including the chief ministership.
Raut’s warning comes just hours after he met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar at his house on Thursday evening. Raut later told reporters that he had gone to extend Diwali wishes to the Maratha strongman but they did discuss, as he put it, “the politics in Maharashtra”.
That meeting, followed up with Friday’s warning, is seen as an effort to counter the narrative that the Shiv Sena, despite the many stinging barbs that it hurls at its alliance partner, would eventually come around. It is also designed to rebut the BJP argument that the Sena did not have the numbers to claim the CM’s post and was only using the demand to seek more cabinet portfolios.
