Abdul Sattar says Ashok Chavan himself had met Shinde with alliance proposal

Maharashtra minister Abdul Sattar on Thursday claimed that when he was in the Congress earlier party leader Ashok Chavan had met Eknath Shinde with a proposal to forge an alliance with the Shiv Sena in the state when the latter was in power with the BJP in 2014His statement came in the wake of some regional news channels reporting Chavans revelation that Shinde who is currently the state chief minister was part of the delegation that had met him with a proposal to form a SenaCongress alliance governmentAs per the reports Chavan also claimed that Shinde had come with a proposal to snap ties with the BJP after which the former had asked him to consult Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and if he agreed he Chavan would talk to the Congresss central leadership but nothing happened after thatSattar a legislator from the Shiv Sena faction led by CM Shinde was here on Thursday to attend Hindu Garva Garjana a convention of the partyReplying to a question asked by reporters here on Chavans claim Sattar said it was actually Chavan and he himself who had approached Shinde with a proposal to form a SenaCongress alliance for government formationAlso Read Maharashtra NCP to hold meet in Shirdi on November 45When I was in the Congress Ashok Chavan and I had requested Shinde to form a government the Agriculture Minister saidShinde was then a minister in the government led by Bharatiya Janata Partys Devendra Fadnavis and Chavan was the president of Maharashtra CongressWhen asked about this Uddhav Thackeray loyalist and Sena spokesperson Vinayak Raut said The claim made by Ashok Chavan as reported by regional TV channels is true It was Eknath Shinde who would criticise the BJP when he was a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government and wanted the Shiv Sena to step out of the governmentOnly the ED director will know how he became so close to the BJP he addedIn 2014 the BJP Shiv Sena Congress and NCP had fought the Assembly polls independently Eknath Shinde was a Leader of Opposition for a month after Fadnavis govt came to power in October 2014 and the Sena had joined the dispensation in December that yearMeanwhile Sattar also said that Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray should accept the leadership of Shinde otherwise his Thackerays faction will be wiped outHe has to look at his Sena through binoculars he saidSattar said Shinde is a true Hindutva leader who is taking forward the legacy of Sena founder Bal Thackeray BJP is our big brother and our ties would remain intact he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever