Mumbai: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and now leader of opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis has recently said that he believes the BJP could not expand in Maharashtra due to its long alliance with Shiv Sena, while the BJP has a golden opportunity to come to power alone after the next assembly elections. Devendra Fadnavis said this on the occasion of Pune Shiv Sena leader Asha Buchke's entry into the BJP last Thursday.

In the meantime, he said, "The BJP could not increase its mass base in Maharashtra earlier because it was in alliance with the Shiv Sena. Now all the three major parties in the state are in power except the BJP. This is a golden opportunity for the BJP to expand statewide. The BJP will take advantage of this and form the government alone in the next assembly elections.''

Devendra Fadnavis says, "The three parties in power (Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP) are feeling suffocated. Asha Buchke, leader of a ruling coalition party, is welcomed to join the BJP. BJP and Shiv Sena have been contesting elections in Maharashtra in alliance since 1985. He says the alliance never gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an opportunity to contest more than half of Maharashtra's assembly seats. Due to this, they could not even build their mass base in these areas.''

At the same time, he also said, "Shiv Sena has always contested more seats than BJP in assembly elections. The alliance broke down in 2014 when the BJP proposed to contest equal seats. Shiv Sena and BJP contested separately. Then the BJP seats came much higher than the Shiv Sena. It was on seeing this situation that the Shiv Sena considered it appropriate to re-align in 2019. This time too, the BJP's seats almost doubled from the Shiv Sena, but then the Shiv Sena broke its alliance with the BJP after the elections and formed the government with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).''

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