Pawar said if the Sena were to quit it would set the stage for the mid-term polls. Pawar said if the Sena were to quit it would set the stage for the mid-term polls.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Friday dared Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to withdraw from the BJP-led government in Maharashtra.

“If Shiv Sena has any self respect they should come out of the government,” Pawar said.

Pawar’s statement comes in the backdrop of the ongoing power tussle between Shiv Sena and BJP who are a coalition partners in Maharashtra.

BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday indicated that party should work for further expansion to ensure its complete hold from panchayat to Parliament. Commenting on the developments the NCP chief felt, “The BJP’s message was for Shiv Sena.”

Pawar said if the Sena were to quit it would set the stage for the mid-term polls.

“The BJP feels awful to share power with Shiv Sena. Now it is up to Shiv Sena or rather Uddhav Thackeray to take a decision if he has any self respect,” Pawar said.

He also went to suggest that had Uddhav’s father Balasaheb Thackeray been alive, he would have quit from the BJP-led government in Maharashtra.

Thackeray did not comment on Pawar’s remark. But a senior party leader said, “We don’t have to taken lessons from Pawar on self respect.”

He added, “But I would like to remind people of Maharashtra that Sena has more self respect that NCP’s leader. In the past Pawar who objected against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign issue joined hands with her after the elections in 2004. How could Pawar who raised foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi sit next to her and enjoy power from 2004 to 2014? Who has more self respect?”

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