After days of standoff, the Shiv Sena and the BJP on Wednesday struck a conciliatory note following Tuesday night’s talks between their leaders in Delhi, reviving hopes of a saffron coalition government in Maharashtra.
In an apparent attempt at rapprochement, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had despatched Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai and party’s leader in the outgoing Assembly Subhash Desai to the national capital on Tuesday night.
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“We had gone to Delhi to take forward our talks on forming the next government together. We are ready for an alliance with BJP to form government and talks were positive,” Mr. Subhash Desai, who briefed Mr. Thackeray on the developments earlier in the day, told reporters.
“We just had informal talks this time and formal discussions will begin from Monday. For now, we have not given any proposal to BJP but have only decided to come together and form a government,” he said.
Mr. Subhash Desai said he had not met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who has been appointed observer for the election of BJP legislature party leader.
Though he did not name the Sena’s BJP interlocutors, sources said they included Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Chandrakant Patil, an MP from Gujarat.
Mr. Thackeray is known to have good personal equation with Mr. Singh, a former BJP president.
Asked if Mr. Thackeray will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Subhash Desai said, “Once the formal talks start, it will be decided whether Uddhav ji will go to Delhi to meet the PM or some BJP leaders will come down to Mumbai for discussions with our leader.”
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