Shinde aide says merger of two Senas still possible

We still share good relations as we are old colleagues. A merger of the two Senas is possible if both of us accept our mistakes and come forward SANJAY SHIRSAT, Shiv Sena

- Saurabha Kulshreshtha

MUMBAI: If we forgive and forget, we can get back together. And, no, it's not too late, said senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Shirsat, referring to the party's bitter split in June 2022. Shirsat's remark, made in an interview to a news channel in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, comes against the backdrop of the open conflict between the BJP and Sena.

The two parties, allies in the BJP-led Mahayuti government, have been locked in battle over several issues ever since the BJP swept to power in November last year. First, there was trouble over the post of chief minister, then a protracted impasse over portfolio distribution, and now over the appointment of guardian ministers of Raigad and Nashik districts.

Shirsat, social justice minister, is a close aide of Sena chief and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, who believes he has been short-changed by the BJP in the power-sharing arrangement in the Mahayuti alliance.