After public spat with Sena, BJP meet avoids discussing ties

After its public spat with Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday steered clear of discussing its ties with the long-time ally at a meeting of party legislators and functionaries, where it chose “only” to deliberate upon the achievements of the Fadnavis government over the last one year.

Ahead of the meeting, several BJP leaders had said that the worsening relations with the Shiv Sena, which is part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra, were likely to come up for discussion.

A senior leader had gone to the extent of saying that the meeting would discuss the probability of snapping ties with the Shiv Sena, which had on Tuesday said that BJP was free to opt out of the coalition if it was bored of its brand of “nationalism” and “patriotism”, raising questions about the continuance of the party in the state government.

However, no such thing happened in the meeting and BJP spokesman Madhav Bhandari said: “The meeting was held only to discuss various achievements of the state government and how do we put them in front of people. There was no mention of the Shiv Sena anywhere in the meeting.” 

He added: “Last year, we won the elections on October 19 and took the oath on the 31st. Hence, we have decided to hold various programmes from October 19 to 31, wherein we will interact with people and tell them what the government has done.”

Relations between the two parties have come under renewed strain after Shiv Sainiks blackened the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former BJP strategist and organiser of Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book launch event on Monday.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had voiced displeasure over the incident and said that the state would not be allowed to be reduced to a “banana republic”.

Amid the growing unease in their ties, Shiv Sena had, in a snide remark on Wednesday, sought to remind Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his Godhra past after he termed the Dadri lynching incident and cancellation of Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai, following Shiv Sena's threat of disrupting it, “unfortunate”. In wry comments that would have riled BJP, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said that “Modi is known and respected due to Godhra and Ahmedabad”.