Shiv Sena's decision to snap ties will backfire, says BJP

The BJP today said the Shiv Sena's decision to contest the next Maharashtra Assembly and Lok Sabha polls alone would backfire for the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.
The Shiv Sena earlier today decided not to align with the BJP and go solo in the 2019 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly polls, declaring that it had so far not contested elections outside the state to keep the Hindu vote together but that would no longer be the case.
"It will be their loss," Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar said, adding that the BJP was keen on alliance.
Shelar said if the Shiv Sena was not keen on having an alliance, the BJP was also ready to go it alone.

A senior BJP leader said his party always went the extra mile for the sake of its alliance with the Sena and was "tolerant".
Even before the Maharashtra elections, the party had asked the Sena to agree to contest equal number of seats in alliance, but the latter rejected the offer, a senior BJP leader said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He claimed the BJP had offered the chief minister's post to the Sena even if it were to secure fewer seats.
"The BJP is a senior partner in the coalition. So, we will behave like an elder brother. We have been tolerant so far and we would not take any step which does not suit our stature," another leader said.

When asked about the future of Shiv Sena ministers at the Centre and in the Maharashtra government, the leader said BJP has no issues even if they continued to hold office.
A senior BJP leader compared Shiv Sena's attitude to an upset wife who keeps threatening her husband that she will go back to her parental home.