New Delhi: A rift between Shiv Sena and BJP alliance in Maharashtra is likely to have evolved as Sena MP and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde on Friday slammed the BJP leaders in Kalyan-Dombivli unit for engaging in "selfish politics" and offered to resign from his post.
The development comes a day after the local BJP leaders held a meeting in Dombivli where they decided not to throw their weight behind Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The cause of the possible rift between the two parties who went into an alliance is believed to be a molestation case filed against BJP's Dombivli East Mandal president Nandu Joshi. Reacting to this, the local BJP leaders alleged that Nandu Joshi was framed by the Shiv Sena and the FIR was registered at the Dombivli Manpada Police Station at the behest of the Sena leaders in a bid to settle political scores.
Speaking amid the political tension, Shrikant Shinde said he does not aspire for any post and it is the senior leaders of the BJP-Sena alliance who will take the call on who to nominate in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, the meeting held in Dombivli under the leadership of state minister Ravindra Chauhan decided to boycott Shiv Sena in the general elections next year.
Notably, this comes close on the heels of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) claiming 22 MLAs and nine MPs from rival Shiv Sena were feeling suffocated due to "step-motherly treatment" by the BJP and could quit the group led by CM Eknath Shinde.
Latching on to Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar's remark that his party was getting step-motherly treatment, an editorial in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' dubbed the Shinde group MLAs and MPs as “hens and cocks” imprisoned in the BJP coop and that it cannot be said when they could be slaughtered.