TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of resorting to the policy of “divide and rule” and engineering a split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) now and in the Shiv Sena last year in Maharashtra.
Seeking to make light of the NCP leader Ajit Pawar breaking away from the Sharad Pawar-led party, he said the Opposition Maha Vikas Agahdi (MVA) will nevertheless go ahead strongly in the state.
Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government as deputy chief minister along with eight other MLAs of his camp on July 2, dealing a blow to the Opposition bloc, which comprises the Congress, the NCP (Pawar faction) and the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Raut, a bitter critic of the BJP, said Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray spoke to the senior Pawar over the phone, while Congress leaders met him on Tuesday to express their support after the split in his party.