25 MLAs of MVA are in touch with BJP, claims Union minister Danve

The MVA, a coalition of the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, was formed after the Sena parted ways with the BJP following the 2019 Assembly elections.

Jalna (Maharashtra): Union Minister of State Raosaheb Danve on Friday claimed that at least 25 disgruntled MLAs of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra are in touch with the BJP. He also claimed that contrary to the Shiv Sena's claim, the post of chief minister had not been offered to it by the BJP during seat-sharing talks in 2019.

"As many as 25 legislators of the MVA are in touch with us because they are unhappy," the BJP leader told reporters here, while refusing to disclose their names. The MVA, a coalition of the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, was formed after the Sena parted ways with the BJP following the 2019 Assembly elections. Danve hit out at the Sena, alleging that it had deviated from its Hindutva ideology.

The party got votes in 2019 polls due to prime minister Narendra Modi, but afterwards it stabbed the BJP in the back, he said. "Today's Shiv Sena is not the Sena of Balasaheb Thackeray, it is a Sena of Uddhav Thackeray and Abdul Sattar (a state minister)," the Union minister said.

He was present during closed-door discussions at `Matoshree', the Thackeray family residence, between BJP leaders Amit Shah, Devendra Fadnavis, Ashish Shelar and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in 2019, Danve said. There was no discussion about chief minister's post then, he added, refuting the Sena's claim that the two allies had agreed to rotate the post.

PTI