Uddhav Thackeray spoke to PM Modi last year regarding alliance: MP Rahul Shewale

Hours after the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena named their group leader and chief whip in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, it was time for them to spill more beans. Rahul Shewale, the new group leader, revealed that Uddhav Thackeray had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last June to renew ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but the matter didn't move forward because the very next month the Thackeray-led MVA suspended BJP's 12 legislators.

Shewale made the revelations at a media conference in New Delhi after 11 other MPs named him their floor leader. The Shinde group has 12 Lok Sabha MPs while seven are with Thackeray. All were present at the media meet. Bhavana Gawali will be the chief whip.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also addressed the media. But what stole the limelight was Shewale's expose, which he said was based on what Thackeray had told the MPs after the party MLAs broke away last month and the Sena chief was trying to hold the ranks together by meeting all his MPs.

"We had several meetings with Uddhav Thackeray after the MLAs left. We requested him to reunite with the BJP. He too agreed with our sentiment and said that he had already made such an effort, but in vain. He asked us to try and also said that he would welcome it if Shinde was made the CM," said Shewale, adding that Thackeray kept insisting on going ahead with the MVA in the next polls at one of the meetings.

The MPs insisted on supporting the BJP's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu and vice-president candidate, thinking it would ease the relation between the estranged parties, said Shewale. He said the MPs met senior party leaders, including Devendra Fadnavis, but instead of responding positively during the crisis, they (Thackeray and his team) kept on upsetting the BJP leadership through Sanjay Raut who met the UPA and other non-BJP leaders ahead of the president poll.

‘Thackeray met the PM'

"In (one of the) meetings, Thackeray told us that he had a hour-long meeting with PM Modi in June last year in New Delhi. He gave the PM his word that the alliance will happen. But the next month, the MVA suspended 12 MLAs upsetting the BJP high command and things didn't move forward. Sanjay Raut, Vinayak Raut, Arvind Sawant and Anil Desai were present when he (Thackeray) told us about the meeting with the PM," he stated further.

Shewale said Thackeray also changed the decision of supporting the NDA vice-president candidate. "Now they have declared support to Margaret Alva, who was in-charge of Maharashtra Congress. During her tenure, the Sena (which was in opposition then) suffered a lot. And yet they want to support her. We have protested the decision and decided to change our leadership in Lok Sabha. We will vote for the NDA's candidate," he added.

However, Shewale said they haven't formed a separate group yet, but submitted to the Speaker to approve the changes they have made. "We are within our constitutional rights to name our leader and chief whip. We are still in the Sena which is still in the NDA. Our party hasn't given any letter about its exit from the NDA. We have done what Uddhav ji asked us to do. Here we are in alliance with the BJP."

Before Shewale's submission, Shinde asked the interested people to wait and watch what unfolds in the coming days. He said while the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker has acknowledged a separate group of MLAs with him as group leader, the Lok Sabha Speaker (Om Birla) too would soon give it a status of the Sena Parliamentary Party.

Shinde said he was in Delhi to meet the lawyers who are representing the state in the other backward class quota case which will come up for a crucial hearing on Wednesday. On the same day, a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India will begin hearing the cases related to the Shinde and Thackeray factions' petitions against each other. The hearing is expected to decide which way the Shinde-Fadnavis government goes.

On Tuesday, the Shinde group had announced a national executive but kept Thackeray's position as the party chief unchanged. However, it created a new post of Mukhya Neta (chief leader) for CM Shinde. Their next battle is for seizing the party's election symbol.

Ignore it: Raut

Reacting to Shewale's revelation, Sanjay Raut said PM Modi and the Thackeray family had relations that went beyond politics. "Uddhav ji has told us many things about what has transpired between him and the PM behind closed doors. Modi and the Thackeray family share a relation that goes beyond politics. Balasaheb Thackeray has given Modi support. Despite political upheavals Uddhav ji and Modi used to talk frequently. They kept the relationship alive. Whoever claims to have done an expose must have been told about the meeting by Modi. Don't pay much attention to it," said Raut.

He wondered where the 12 MPs were when the BJP severed ties in 2014 and forced a break-up in 2019. "We wanted an alliance. It was part of our manifesto as well. The Sena is not responsible for breaking ties with the BJP. And when the MVA was made, Thackeray shared with us why we had to do it. All these people had welcomed it. Thackeray has been sharing all things with us," he added.