Mumbai: Days after Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole and BJP Union minister of state Raosaheb Danve said that their parties will go solo in the next assembly polls, Shiv Sena said that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Sena would then come together in the interest of the state.“It is good that BJP and Congress are preparing towards that [going solo]. That leaves two parties, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party, in the state. If everybody else is going solo then these two prominent parties will have to come together in the interest of the state. Statements to this effect have been made by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar,” an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Patole said that his party would fight all the forthcoming elections alone. The Congress will be the single-largest party in 2024 assembly polls, he said. Subsequently, senior BJP leader RaosahebDanve made a statement that his party would also contest the next polls on its own.

Raut later said that in light of Congress going solo, the two other parties in the Maharashtra VikasAghadi (MVA) will think about their poll strategy. “In the future, if the two leading parties of Maharashtra, NCP and Sena, come together to contest elections then it can lead to miracles in the state… Both the parties will think about it (pre-poll alliance) in future,” he said.

In an apparent jibe at Patole for his statement, the editorial in Saamana on Thursday said that a party needs to reach the majority mark of 145 to form a government. “Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole is a warrior leader. He has announced that his party would fight the next assembly elections on its own and install a chief minister of the Congress. He has also said that if the party allows, he himself would be the next chief ministerial face. Hence, it is clear that until Patole installs a Congress chief minister in Maharashtra in 2024, he won’t sit quiet,” the editorial said.