No guarantee of Oppn ‘alliance’ staying intact by May 23: Sena

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ The Shiv Sena on Monday hit out at the opposition parties for trying to come together to keep the BJP out of power after the Lok Sabha poll results, saying the country cannot afford to have a coalition government “crawling” with the support of several small outfits.

Taking a swipe at TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu’s efforts to forge an alliance of opposition parties, it said he was unnecessarily exhausting himself by running from pillar to post as there was no guarantee of this “possible coalition” staying intact by the time results are out on May 23.

Elections to 542 seats of the 543-member Lok Sabha ended Sunday and the counting of votes is slated for Thursday. Most exit polls have forecast another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with some of them projecting that the BJP-led NDA would get over 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.

“The ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (proposed grand alliance of opposition parties) has at least five prime ministerial hopefuls…their hopes are likely to be dashed going by the current indications,” the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.