Sena Leader Sanjay Raut's Veiled Barb At Devendra Fadnavis Amid Tussle

In a veiled dig at Maharashtra's acting chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday used a Hindi verse to imply that the BJP leader is a new entrant in the big game of politics.

The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena are locked in a bitter tussle on sharing the chief minister's post, resulting in a stalemate over government formation in the state.

Hitting out at 49-year-old Fadnavis without taking his name, Mr Raut in a tweet said, "Jo khandaani raees hain wo mizaj rakhte hain narm apna, tumhara lehja bataa rahaa hai, tumhari daulat nayi nayi hai" (ones who are traditionally rich have a soft temperament, your tone shows your wealth is newly acquired).

The Rajya Sabha member last week also quoted words of a Hindi poet on his Twitter handle to take aim at the BJP.

Mr Fadnavis, who started his political career in the 1990s, while resigning as the chief minister on Friday, blamed ally Shiv Sena for the deadlock over government formation after the recent Assembly polls.

After quitting, Mr Fadnavis, who was the youngest mayor of Nagpur and represented the Nagpur-South West Assembly seat since 1999, said it was a shock for the BJP when the Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray declared soon after the results that "all options were open for the Sena to form the government".

On the Shiv Sena's contention that the two parties had decided before the Lok Sabha polls that the chief minister's post will be shared for two-and-half-years each, Mr Fadnavis said no such decision was taken in his presence.

Later, Mr Thackeray strongly countered Mr Fadnavis' claim and said there will be no talks with the BJP unless it accepted that the two allies had decided to share the chief minister's post.

Mr Thackeray said he will fulfill the promise made to his father, late Bal Thackeray, to install a Shiv Sena chief minister in the state.

In the October 21 state Assembly polls, the BJP won 105 seats, Shiv Sena-56, NCP-54 and the Congress won 44 seats.