MH-FADNAVIS-SENA

Shiv Sena should clarify over Chavan's statement: Fadnavis
    Mumbai, Jan 20 (PTI) Former Maharashtra Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said Shiv Sena should clarify over
Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan's statement that it had
proposed to form a coalition government with Congress and NCP
after the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election to stop the BJP
from coming to power in the state.
    Fadnavis, now Leader of Opposition in the Assembly,
said Chavan's remarks were very surprising and revealed the
"true face" of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which in
November formed the government in the state along with
Congress and NCP.
    "What Chavan has said is very surprising. Coming from
someone of his stature, it has to be taken seriously. The
disclosure has revealed the real face of Shiv Sena," Fadnavis
told media in Delhi.
    "The Shiv Sena should come out with a clarification
over Chavan's remarks," Fadnavis said.
    Chavan has said that after the 2014 Assembly polls,
Shiv Sena and NCP had approached him to form a coalition
government to stop the BJP. But the Congress had rejected the
demand immediately, Chavan told PTI in an interview on Sunday.
    Even after the Assembly election in 2019, Congress
chief Sonia Gandhi was not ready for a coalition with the
Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena but she relented after long
deliberations, Chavan has said.
    In November, the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party
and Congress formed a coalition government in Maharashtra
under the leadership of Thackeray.
    Asked what made the Congress join hands with the
ideologically opposite Sena, Chavan said, "A similar situation
emerged in 2014 as well. Then too, Shiv Sena and NCP had
approached me to form a coalition government to stop the BJP.
I immediately rejected the offer then and said winning and
losing is normal in politics. In the past too, we lost
elections and sat in the opposition."
    In 2014, BJP and Shiv Sena fought the Maharashtra
polls without an alliance, so did Congress and NCP. After the
elections, BJP ran the government but later Shiv Sena also
joined it. PTI VT
VT VT

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)