All doors of BJP closed for Uddhav Thackeray, says Maha BJP chief

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the BJP is not discussing anything with Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, nor will we do so in future.

Nagpur: Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Friday said his party's doors were shut for Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, and hinted that there was no possibility of reconciliation with him. He was speaking to reporters at the Nagpur airport. "All doors of the BJP are closed for Uddhav Thackeray. We are neither discussing anything with him nor will we do so in future," Bawankule said in response to a query.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Undivided Shiv Sena fought the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections together but parted ways following the poll results after differences over sharing the chief minister's post. The Sena then teamed up with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

The three-party MVA government, however, collapsed in June last year after Eknath Shinde and 39 other MLAs of the Sena rebelled against Thackeray and joined hands with the BJP to form a government. While Shinde became the chief minister, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was appointed as his deputy.

When asked about Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao's allegation made in Nagpur on Thursday that Maharashtra witnesses most suicides by farmers, Bawankule said that the BJP will soon release a video about the flaws in the 'Telangana model' and what KCR was saying and doing.

On former MLA Ashish Deshmukh, who is set to join the BJP on June 18, Bawankule said, "Deshmukh told the BJP that he is not keen on fighting the upcoming polls to the Maharashtra Assembly or the Lok Sabha and he wants to do the work of expanding the party base. He does not want to remain in the Congress as that party is anti-OBC."

Deshmukh, who was the BJP MLA from Katol in Nagpur district, had quit the saffron party and joined the Congress some years ago. Recently he was suspended from the Congress. (PTI)