MUMBAI: Upset over ‘paltry’ allocation of seats for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly polls, three small parties of the Shiv Sena-BJP led ‘Mahayuti’ today said they have decided to quit the combine and accused the saffron constituents of “back-stabbing” them.
“Shiv Sena and BJP have stabbed us in the back. SSP, RSP and Shivsangram have decided to leave ‘Mahayuti’ (grand alliance) and contest the Assembly polls jointly,” SSP leader Sadabhau Khot said here.
“We will declare our joint list of candidates this evening,” Khot said.
He said they were brought into the grand alliance by late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, “we trusted him and came into ‘Mahayuti’. But our house is being burnt while trying to douse fire in their (Sena and BJP) houses.”
“By giving seven seats to four constituents (including RPI), they (Sena and BJP) have insulted us,” the farmers’ leader from western Maharashtra said, adding we apologies to people of Maharashtra for our mistake in aligning with such parties.
He alleged that there was a systematic plan to oust them from the Mahayuti.
“We had asked Sena and BJP two months ago if we had become a burden for them. We will go to people and organize a Sangharsh yatra in the state to expose our betrayal,” Khot said.
“We were used. They offered us seven seats. We said we don’t want a single seat. Instead, at last night’s meeting, we asked that RPI leader Ramdas Athawale and RSP leader Mahadev Jankar be made Chief Minister by rotation,” he said.
Khot alleged that everyone tried to get more seats by using them.
“Both the parties (Sena and BJP) indulged in that. We will tell this to people of Maharashtra and expose them,” he said.
While, Jankar said, the Sena and BJP stabbed us in the back.
“They stabbed us while talking sweetly. We will expose their real face to people of Maharashtra,” Jankar said.
“They treated us like beggars. Now we won’t go to them.
They should come to us if they want to talk to us,” he said.
Maharashtra BJP President Devendra Fadnavis said after a meeting of state BJP core committee that the decision of smaller parties in ‘Mahayuti’ to part ways was unfortunate.
“We are trying our best to ensure that the smaller parties in Mahayuti get additional seats,” Fadnavis said.
BJP state poll-incharge Om Mathur was present at the meeting.
“We are trying hard to resolve the crisis in the Mahayuti,” Fadnavis said.
Meanwhile, BJP sources said a meeting of senior Sena and BJP leaders was likely later today to resolve the Mahayuti alliance tangle. -PTI
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