MUMBAI:
Bharatiya Janata Party's
Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday ruled out any alliance with Raj Thackeray's
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. On Tuesday, Fadnavis had had an hour-long meeting with Thackeray in Mumbai.
Addressing a press conference after the party's meeting on organisational elections, Fadnavis said, "There has been no discussion with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. It is very important that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena change its ideology and manner of working, then in the future, going with them can be considered. But as of today, there is no likelihood of going with them. We are a national party and take people of all caste and communities along with us. Today, there is a huge gulf between their ideology and ours. In future, if there is a change in their ideology and behaviour, there could be a possibility (of an alliance) and you will find that out for yourself," he said.
He said that the party had performed well in the local zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections, pointing out that with 103 seats, it was the single largest party today at the grassroots level despite the
Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party coming together. "Those parties should stop celebrating because it is the Bharatiya Janata Party that has done well and not them."
Their behaviour, he said, is like "doosryachya ghari mulga janmala aala (a male child is born at somebody else's home) and they are distributing sweets. They should stop distributing sweets," he said.
About the party's poor performance in Nagpur, he said the party had lost only six seats. "True we have lost seats in Nagpur and Palghar. In the last election, we were in alliance with Shiv Sena. At the time, we won 21 seats in Nagpur and Sena eight. This time, our seats have reduced to 15 while Sena is down to one. We have not done all that badly," he said.