Shiv Sena and BJP are fighting the February 21 polls to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) separately for the first time in over two decades.
Ever since the Sena snapped ties with the BJP last month, it has gone on the offensive against the latter and also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, this has not dimmed hopes in the BJP camp that the Uddhav Thackeray-led party will approach it for a tie-up to rule the country’s richest civic body after the poll results are announced on February 23.
A senior BJP minister said his party was already in touch with the Sena ministers (both the parties are still in an alliance in Maharashtra and at the Centre) and that informal parleys were on. “The Sena is not going anywhere. They will come to us. I have spoken to their ministers and I know that an alliance will definitely happen. If it does not happen, there will be a political earthquake in Maharashtra,” added the BJP minister. Meanwhile, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray told a Marathi news channel that “BJP should not stretch things to the breaking point or else, the (state) government will not last its full term.”