“We will not stop MGP from severing ties with us. We can’t keep anyone under lock and key. But from our side we will not break the alliance,” Parsekar told media persons, hours after the first day of the Budget session of the Legislative Assembly ended on Monday.
His statement comes months after speculation regarding the alliance for the 2017 Assembly elections. Until Monday, the CM had been confirming that talks were on to discuss seat allocation based on candidates’ winnability.
PWD Minister and MGP leader Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar had recently stated that their alliance with the BJP for the next polls will be decided only four months prior to the polls. “We will take a call on it four months prior to the election,” he had said, which prompted the CM to clarify the party stand on the issue.
Both parties had contested the March 2012 Assembly elections, after MGP had broken its alliance with the Congress. The present coalition has three MGP MLAs, with two of them – Ramkrishna and his brother Pandurang ‘Deepak’ Dhavalikar – being ministers of cabinet rank.
