Shiv Sena takes jibe at Opposition over coalition efforts

The Asian Age.

Metros, Mumbai

The Sena Monday said that the country could not afford to have a coalition government “crawling” with the support of several small outfits.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena took a dig at Opposition parties for their efforts to form a coalition with smaller such parties.

In its editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, the Sena took a jibe at Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu's efforts to forge an alliance of Opposition parties.

The Shiv Sena said that Mr Naidu was unnecessarily exhausting himself running from pillar to post given that there was no guarantee of the “possible coalition” lasting beyond May 23 when the results of the Lok Sabha elections would be out.

The Sena Monday said that the country could not afford to have a coalition government “crawling” with the support of several small outfits. “The Mahagathbandhan has at least five Prime Ministerial hopefuls... their hopes are likely to be dashed going by current indications," the Sena said.

Elections to 542 out of 543 seats ended Sunday and the counting of votes was slated on Thursday. A majority of exit polls had predicted another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some had projected that the BJP-led NDA would get over 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.

Referring to Mr Naidu's meetings with several Opposition leaders, the Sena said that some people were thinking that after the declaration of results, the situation at the Centre would be unstable and “they wanted to benefit from it”.

The editorial said, “The Opposition has assumed that the BJP will not come to power, so they are trying hard to gain the support of all possible parties to keep the BJP out of power.”

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