Sanjay Raut: 'Courtesy meet with Governor, not politically motivated'

Shiv Sena leader and party spokesperson Sanjay Raut is scheduled to meet the Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Ahead of the meet, Raut has said in a press conference that his visit to the Governor is a mere courtesy meet and not politically motivated. He added that he wanted to meet him before but couldn't do so due to the assembly election in the State.

READ | Maharashtra: Sanjay Raut Claims Shiv Sena Has Support Of 170 MLAs

'Our Governor is the head of the State and our guardian'

The Shiv Sena leader said, “Our Governor is the head of the State, our guardian, so wishing his wellbeing and meeting him should not be termed as a politically motivated move”. “Our Governor was once a Chief Minister of a State, he has also been a Union Minister. He has enough experience of working in both the houses of parliament. We have also worked with him earlier and sought his guidance a couple of times. Such an experienced politician has been the governor of Maharashtra, so I just went to discuss various matters with him,” Raut added.

"It is my duty to apprise the Governor of our party's role in Maharashtra and the role we can play in the current political situation that has arisen in the State," he appended.

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The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has won an absolute majority in the Maharashtra assembly polls that concluded on October 24. As per the Election Commission, BJP has secured 105 seats, Shiv Sena bagged 56 seats, Congress has 44 and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bagged 54 seats in the 288-member House. There has been a power struggle between BJP and Shiv Sena over the seat-sharing in the State assembly as well as the post of Chief Minister. While BJP has declared that Devendra Fadnavis will be the Chief Minister of the State, Shiv Sena wishes the Chief Minister be from its party. Ahead of the election, the party had even portrayed Shiv Sena scion Aaditya Thackeray to be the chief ministerial candidate.

Raut has claimed that Shiv Sena would soon have its party candidate as the Chief Minister with the support of 170 MLAs. He had even contacted NCP leader Sharad Pawar in this regard. Reportedly, Pawar has said, NCP would like to stay in the opposition. Pawar has also said that he is unaware of how Shiv Sena arrived on the number of 170 MLAs supporting their party.

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(With ANI inputs)