A day after the BMC polls threw up a fractured verdict, senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari on Friday said his party and the Shiv Sena will have to join hands to run the civic body.
“The final decision on this issue has to be taken by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. Both are mature and I am sure they will take the right decision,” he told a Marathi news channel. “I feel leaders of both parties have to take a decision, showing sujh bujh (understanding).”
Singling out Sena mouthpiece Saamana for targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, he said, “If there has to be friendship with us, then there has to be a check on the writings in Saamana . How will there be friendship when Saamana , on a daily basis, writes insulting things about the PM and our party president? I feel that had these things been avoided, there would not have been so much bitterness between BJP and Sena” .
Mr. Gadkari’s remarks came a day after the BJP scored an emphatic win in the Maharashtra civic polls, emerging as the largest party in eight of the 10 municipal corporations, while finishing a close second to Shiv Sena in BMC elections.
The BJP improved its 2012 BMC poll performance by leaps and bounds, winning 82 seats, just two less than Sena. Both the parties are short of the magic figure of 114 needed to control the civic body.
The BJP also led the seat tally in elections to 25 zilla parishads and 283 panchayat samitis in Maharashtra, which have traditionally been strongholds of the Congress and NCP.
