MUMBAI: While state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday called on
Raj Thackeray at the MNS chief’s Shivaji Park residence, Republican Party of India (RPI) president Ramdas Athavale did another somersault. Athavale, who had said last week that
Shiv Sena president Uddhav and Raj should come together to trounce the DF, now said there should not be a union of the two cousins as it would have repercussions on the Sena-saffron alliance.
This has brought to the fore the Sena-BJP-RPI’s inability to put up a united front against the ruling DF ahead of the 2014 elections. On Monday, senior BJP leader
Gopinath Munde had surprised the Sena by saying he would not attempt to bring the cousins together. “They belong to the Thackeray clan and are brothers. They should sort out their differences,” Munde had said in Sangli.
Wednesday’s meeting fuelled speculations in the political circles that Fadnavis may be trying to persuade the MNS chief to join the Sena-BJP-RPI. But Fadnavis described the meeting “a courtesy call” and said there was no political basis for it.
Sena mouthpiece Saamna had slammed Athavale, BJP leaders
Nitin Gadkari and Gopinath Munde for saying they favoured MNS’ induction into the alliance. But when senior Sena leader Ram Kadam echoed the same line, he was spared by the Sena. “Such confusion in the Sena-BJP-RPI alliance ahead of the polls may prove detrimental,” said a senior BJP functionary.
