BJP's ally outreach: Amit Shah to meet Uddhav Thackeray amid strained relations

Amid stained relations between the alliance partners Shiv Sena and BJP in Maharashtra , latter party's Chief Amit Shah is set to meet Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday.

This meeting is part of Amit Shah's 'Sampark for Samarthan' outreach programme where BJP President reaching out to like-minded people to canvass support for BJP ahead of 2019 elections.

The relations between Sena and BJP have been straining for a long time and they further escalated after Palghar by-polls.

After facing defeat in Palghar bypolls, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had explicitly expressed the party's moving away from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said:

"I am not ready to accept this defeat because 'saam, daam, dand, bhed (negotiation, money, punishment and division)' were used to win the polls," Thackeray said. "When BJP came to power in 2014, we thought this government is here to stay for at least 25 years. However, just after 4 years, they are losing most by-elections, which has reduced them to minority now. After coming to power with a majority, they did not need allies anymore," he said.

In one of the sharpest attacks after the recently held Lok Sabha bypoll in Palghar, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday described BJP as its biggest "political enemy".

The country "does not" want the duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, but could "accept" the Congress or JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda, he said.

"The Shiv Sena is the biggest political enemy of the BJP. The Sena's radical Hinduism would prove problematic for the BJP," he said in an opinion piece written in party mouthpiece Saamana'.