Maharashtra

Devendra Fadnavis

Shiv Sena

Nitin Gadkari

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

NCP-Congress

Mohan Bhagwat tells CM Fadnavis to be ready to sit in Opposition but not engage in ‘unholy politics’.Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has categorically toldChief Ministerthat he shouldn’t stake claim to form the government withouton board. CM Fadnavis and Union Transport Ministerhad metat Sangh headquarters in Nagpur on Tuesday night.Sources close to the development said Bhagwat clearly told Fadnavis, if Sena is cobbling up support fromthen he should let them go ahead and form the government. “Bhagwat said, be ready to serve people from the Opposition, but don’t indulge in unholy politics of horse trading which is not in the interest of the BJP in the long run,” a source in the BJP told Mirror. Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari had written to Bhagwat on Monday and asked him to intervene in the ongoing tussle between the BJP and the Shiv Sena over power sharing.A senior BJP leader on condition of anonymity said the party believes there is no question of staking claim without the Shiv Sena on board. “The situation was different in 2014. We had contested the election separately. This time, however, we asked for votes in the name of BJP-Sena alliance. There is no dichotomy between the RSS’s advice and what we want to do,” he said.Maharashtra’s finance minister and senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said, “Several stories about government formation are circulating in the media. Fadnavis’s visit to RSS headquarters was only to apprise RSS leadership of the situation. RSS never get involved in the brass tacks. They are only concerned about the ideological issues such as Article 370, Ram Janmabhoomi, Common Civil Code, among others.”Dilip Deodhar, an RSS observer from Nagpur, said, “RSS is always interested in politics of addition and not subtraction. So it has advised BJP not to infuriate Sena by staking claim without Sena’s support.”