The bitter political tussle between Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took another interesting turn on Tuesday evening when Congress entered the fray, saying it will "consider" any "concrete" proposal on the government formation in Maharashtra from the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.
Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said they hadn't received any proposal from the Sena yet.
Speaking to PTI, Chavan said, "We have not received any concrete proposal from the Shiv Sena. We will not take a lead on it. But if a concrete proposal comes from the Sena, we will consider it and discuss it with the high command."
The former Union minister said any proposal from the Sena must be for both the Congress and the NCP, which fought the October 21 polls together and ended up with 44 and 54 seats, respectively.
The 73-year-old Congress politician won from the Karad South constituency in the just-concluded assembly elections.
The Sena and the BJP fought the October 21 Assembly polls in an alliance, winning 56 and 105 seats, respectively, but have gone on to take tough positions on government formation, with the former insisting on sharing the chief ministerial tenure and the latter rejecting it.
On Tuesday, Sena leader Sanjay Raut took a swipe at the BJP when asked about the delay in the formation of the government in the state. Raut cited the absence of a "Dushyant Chautala in Maharashtra" as the reason.
The jibe was in reference to BJP's deal with Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala who partnered with Manohar Lal Khattar to form the government, despite the bitterness they shared before the polls.
Later in the day, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said nothing on the CM post had been decided when the alliance was finalised with the Shiv Sena ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, adding no formula had been worked out yet.
"The Shiv Sena was not promised CM's post for two-and-a-half years when the alliance was formalised before the Lok Sabha polls," Fadnavis told reporters at his official residence 'Varsha'.
