Hung K'taka Assembly may force BJP-JD(S) tie-up: Mungantiwar

Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar today said that a hung Assembly in neighbouring Karnataka, which votes on May 12, could force the BJP to align with the Janata Dal (Secular).

He said that the party could not afford to get stuck around the 100-seat mark in the Karnataka Assembly polls.

"If we do, the party may once again have to align with the JD(S)," he said.

He added that the Congress too might be toying with the idea of extending outside support to a JD-S government.

Mungantiwar said that after the Karnataka results are out, the Congress would be left (in governance) in just two states.

He said some parties were indulging in "spreading rumours" as they were unsure of voters' support.

Speaking about the Lok Sabha and local bodies' constituency polls in Maharashtra, the senior BJP leader discounted reports about the BJP asking the Shiv Sena to withdraw its candidate for the Palghar Lok Sabha seat.

Replying to a query on the Congress reportedly asking the BJP to withdraw its candidate for the Palus-Kadegaon assembly seat bypoll, Mungantiwar told reporters that it was the BJP parliamentary board's decision to contest these bypolls.

The seat had fallen vacant after the death of Congress MLA and former state minister Patangrao Kadam on March 9.

Replying to queries over the Sena hijacking BJP's probable candidate for the Palghar LS bypoll, Mungantiwar said that the kin of a deceased sitting member was expected to get sympathy votes only if he contested on the same party symbol.

"The sympathy factor is out of the equation when the kin chooses some other party to contest the election," he said.

He informed that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had urged Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to not field a candidate for the Palghar LS bypoll.

He added that the real contest in Palghar was between the BJP and the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi which won three Assembly segments falling within the Palghar Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.