Hope Sena, BJP come together later: Maha BJP

MUMBAI: “Blood and Hindutva” of the BJP and the Shiv Sena are common and they should come together again and form a government, senior Maharashtra BJP leader Chandrakant Patil said on Wednesday.

A day earlier, veteran Sena leader Manohar Joshi had said his party and the BJP, which parted ways days after the results of the Assembly poll were announced, could come together in near future.

“The BJP and the Shiv Sena are natural allies for the last 30 years. Their blood and Hindutva are common.. The parties should come together and form a government. The government should have been formed jointly because the popular mandate was in the favour of both the parties,” Mr Patil told reporters.

The senior BJP leader said he didn't have any idea about what Manohar Joshi had said. “I do not have any idea about it but yes there is an optimism. This is just an optimism. I do not know if it (a re-alliance) will work or not,” Mr Patil said.

When asked if doors are still open for the discussions with the Sena, which joined hands with rivals Congress and NCP to form a coalition government last month after snapping ties with the BJP, Mr Patil said “doors were open at that time also”.

"We did not have any ego that time (after the results of the Assembly elections were announced on October 24), and that is why we had taken a lead but we were not allowed (to proceed),” the BJP leader said.