Thackerays To Make Reunion Official, Congress Says Won't Continue Alliance

Uddhav Thackeray's faction of Shiv Sena is going ahead full steam with Raj Thackeray's MNS for the civic elections in Mumbai. The formal announcement will be made at noon tomorrow, said senior Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut. Raut also made it clear that Congress, the naysayer to this alliance, will no longer be their ally for the BMC election -- a situation that the Congress confirmed, with a hint at their contingency plan. 

"There will be no further discussion with the Congress," Sanjay Raut told reporters less than 24 hours after his telephonic conversation with Rahul Gandhi. 

"We will see to it that there should not be any enmity with the Congress during the election. Post-election, if required, we will take the support of Congress. But I am sure that both brothers will 100 per cent cross 100 seats in BMC," he added. 

The Congress made it clear that it is sticking to its stand on Raj Thackeray and is even ready to discontinue its alliance with the Uddhav Thackeray's faction of Shiv Sena.  

"It is wrong to say that Raj Thackeray is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi... In the BMC elections, the ideologies of all our parties have now diverged, and we will move forward while maintaining these differences... Because Raj Thackeray has now joined hands with Uddhav Thackeray, we will not continue our alliance with them," said Congress's Sachin Sawant.

"We have always distanced ourselves from those who create controversies based on language and religion, and we will continue to maintain this distance," he added.

He also made it clear that they have other options. "The NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) approached us today and proposed that we contest the elections together. It will take a few days for the situation to become clear regarding which parties we will form alliance with," he said.

The Congress is in talks with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) of Prakash Ambedkar.

The Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, meanwhile, is working out options with Thackeray brothers as well as the Congress. 

Primarily, NCP(SP) is looking for to join hands with Thackeray brothers, provided they get a respectable share of seats. To cover all bases, they are not ruling out an alignment with the Congress. 

Sources have revealed that Thackeray brothers have proposed giving around 10-15 seats to NCP(SP), which is demanding 50 to 55 seats. 

Earlier, attempts have been made to have the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi contest the civic election as a block, but the Congress has balked at the prospect of adding Raj Thackeray to the mix. Despite Shiv Sena (UBT)'s insistence on a collective fight against the BJP, the Mumbai Congress had announced that they will go solo. 

Uddhav Thackeray - hemmed in by the BJP and Eknath Shinde after the split in his party two years ago - has done what few dreamt of reuniting with the brother estranged since 2005. 

Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is expected to bring in votes from right-wing supporters, which the Sena had lost after allying with the Congress. The Congress was expected to be the counterweight, retaining the Muslim vote. 

But the Congress had retained its opposition to MNS on ideological grounds.