'There are ideological differences but we aren't enemies,' says Sanjay Raut on meeting with Devendra Fadnavis

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said that he met former Maharashtra chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday to discuss certain issues and that both of them could have ideological differences but there was no enmity between the two.

"I met Devendra Fadnavis yesterday to discuss certain issues. He is a former Chief Minister. Also, he is the leader of opposition in Maharashtra and Bihar Polls-in charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Our meeting was fixed as I wanted to take his interview for Saamna. Due to COVID-19 and other reasons, it could not materialise," he said.

"There can be ideological differences but we are not enemies. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was aware of our meeting. We were not sitting in a bunker it was an open meeting," he added.

Maharashtra BJP leader Pravin Darekar issued a statement on the meeting between the two leaders and said, "The meeting was held in the context of the upcoming Bihar legislative assembly elections. During the course of the meeting, Sanjay Raut interviewed Fadnavis for the Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' newspaper. However, Fadnavis has said that the interview should remain un-edited and be printed as is."

Pravin said that it would be better if no one tried to dig out any political meanings from this meeting when there are none.

In November last year, the Shiv Sena withdrew from NDA which ultimately led to party leader Uddhav Thackeray becoming Maharashtra Chief Minister through support from Congress, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Raut also spoke on the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) pulling out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"The strong pillars of the NDA were the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal. We were in power and opposition together. The Shiv Sena was forced to exit the NDA, now the Akali Dal left it. They were with BJP since 1996. NDA has got new allies, I wish them all the best. I do not consider an alliance as NDA that does not have Shiv Sena and Akali Dal," Raut said talking told reporters.

Days after quitting the union cabinet, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday decided to pull out of the BJP-led NDA alliance over "Centre`s stubborn refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers crops on MSP".