<p>BJP state unit chief Chandrakant Patil<br></p>

PUNE: Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) state unit chief Chandrakant Patil said here on Wednesday that he was hopeful of his party forming an alliance again with the Shiv Sena in the state.

The doors for discussions were always open for the Sena to join hands with the BJP, he said.

“Both parties are natural allies. Both have the same Hindutva blood. We have been friends for over 30 years. We should have come together and formed the government as per the mandate given by the people,” said Patil. He was speaking to reporters after attending a private event in the city. Quizzed about the recent statement by senior Sena leader Manohar Joshi which hinted at the Sena joining hands with the BJP, Patil said that though he was not aware of the statement made by the Sena leader, he would ‘welcome’ the Sena if they want to come and form an alliance.

He said that the discussions could have been completed at the time when the Sena decided to leave the alliance partner and join hands with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form the government.

"We were trying to reach out. We don’t have any ego. We had taken a lead, but we were not allowed to go ahead,” Patil said.

He rubbished claims that BJP leaders like Pankaja Munde and Eknath Khadse would part ways with the party. “These leaders have some concerns. They have been a part and parcel of the party for decades, and will not leave it,” he said.

Munde, a former state minister, lost the assembly election. She has appealed to her supporters to gather in a show of strength at Gopinath Gadh on Thursday for a rally to mark her father late Gopinath Munde’s birth anniversary. Her tweets and Facebook posts had triggered talks that she might leave the party. Khadse, too, was unhappy after his daughter lost the assembly elections. He had blamed internal factions in the party for the defeat.

