'Journey Before Reaching Goal is Enjoyable': Sanjay Raut's Poetic Dig at BJP Amid Tug-of-war for Power

As the stalemate over government formation in Maharashtra continues, Shiv Sena’s senior leader Sanjay Raut on Monday took a poetic jibe at its ally BJP amid his party’s unflinching demand for a 50:50 division of power, which includes the clause for a rotating CM in the state.

Stepping up pressure on BJP, Raut in a tweet put up a photograph of him with party chief Uddhav Thackery along with a message that said, "journey is enjoyable before reaching the goal". The Rajya Sabha member, whose party espouses the cause of 'Marathi Manoos', posted the message in Hindi on his twitter handle. The post reads: "Lakshya tak pahunchne se pahle safar me mazaa aataa hai."

Raut in the post also greeted his followers with the slogan "Jai Hind", even as the party has since long been insisting on using the salutation- "Jai Maharashtra".

As the power tussle between the allies entered its 11th day, two top Maharashtra leaders reached the smoggy National Capital - Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP and opposition stalwart Sharad Pawar, who’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) finished third in last month's state election.

While Fadnavis met his party chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence, Pawar is likely to hold talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Although the meeting between Fadnavis and Shah has been called to discuss the drought relief measures for farmers, the two leaders are mainly going to discuss the stalemate in Maharashtra over government formation, sources told News18.

Amid standoff, a third significant meeting is also scheduled to take place between Raut and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday evening. The meeting is slated to take place a day after Raut claimed his party would soon have its chief minister with the support of "170 MLAs".

With the deadlock over formation of government continuing in the state, Raut also said on Sunday that talks with the BJP will take place only on the issue of the chief minister's post.

The BJP and Shiv Sena, which contested the October 21 state elections together, have been locked in a bitter battle over sharing of the chief minister's post and are yet to start formal talks over government formation.

In the polls to 288-member state Assembly, the BJP won 105 seats, Shiv Sena-56, NCP-54 and Congress-44.