With the seat-sharing talks between BJP and Shiv Sena making no headway, the RPI, a constituent of opposition ‘Mahayuti’ (grand alliance) in Maharashtra, on Tuesday asked the leaders of two saffron parties to resolve the differences and unite to overthrow the Congress-NCP regime.
RPI leader Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday met Sena president Uddhav Thackeray here and asked him to avoid a split in the Sena-BJP led Mahayuti to ensure ouster of Congress-NCP government in the October 15 Assembly polls.
“I told Uddhav that he should try and avoid break-up of the alliance over seat-sharing. He said he did not want the alliance to break and assured me that he will make all efforts to preserve it,” said Athawale, a Rajya Sabha member.
The RPI leader said he would be meeting top BJP leaders here tomorrow and make the same appeal.
“If Sena and BJP stay together, we have a good chance of coming to power in Maharashtra. Nobody should do anything which will deprive us of power which is within grasp now,” he said.
“I told Uddhav that coming to power in Maharashtra again was the dream of (Uddhav’s father) the late Bal Thackeray and we should all work together to achieve that dream.”
Athawale hoped that the seat-sharing deadlock would be resolved during BJP president Amit Shah’s visit on Wednesday.
“RPI should be given five-six seats by Sena and as many by BJP,” he said, adding that “after giving about 20 to 25 seats to allies, Sena and BJP can contest the remaining seats.”
