The state government’s initiative to plant over two crore trees seem to have brought warring alliance partners BJP and Shiv Sena closer, with senior leaders of both parties showering praises and swearing support to the other in times of need.
“Uddhavji planted the sapling. I put the soil and watered it. I am sure that this sapling of friendship will turn in to a mammoth tree,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the plantation drive’s launch in Mumbai on Friday.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said that he hasn’t joined the programme to derail it. “Wherever it is necessary, I will stand shoulder to shoulder. Anything that gets a good start, ends well as well,” he said.
The bonhomie was such that Mr. Fadnavis, while replying to Mr. Thackeray’s point on global warming, said, “What Uddhavji said is absolutely right. Nature won’t spare us if we only keep on taking from Mother Earth, but do not give back.”
Mr. Thackeray’s response is considered important on the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between both parties since last month, which has been marked by sharp criticism of each other, which did not even spare the top leaderships of both parties.
Sena mouthpiece Saamana has been criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah over several policies of the central government. The BJP’s mouthpiece criticised Mr. Thackeray by referring to him as a jailor played by comic actor Asrani.
Earlier, Sena MP Sanjay Raut had termed the BJP government as the ‘empire of the Nizam’, to which BJP replied calling the Sena ‘Aurangzeb’. Leaders from both parties have repeatedly targeted each other, with Sena activists even tearing the posters of BJP leadership. Two weeks ago, speaking at a public rally, Mr. Thackeray had even asked his party members to prepare for contesting the upcoming Mumbai municipality polls independently.
While the Opposition called it a ploy, it dared the Sena to quit the government, both at the state and the Centre, and criticised the BJP. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar too advised the Sena along similar lines.
At a time when relations between both parties seemed to have been stretched to breaking point, a visit by State Forest Minister Sudhir Munguntiwar to Mr. Thackeray, allegedly at the behest of Mr. Fadnavis, with an invite to join the tree plantation drive seem to have done the trick. Sources within both parties, however, said the civic elections are scheduled for February 2017, and the period leading to it may throw up numerous surprises.
