No govt formation without support of Shiv Sena: RPI's Athawale

Mumbai: BJP ally Republican Party of India (Athavale) on Sunday said no government in Maharashtra was possible without the support of Shiv Sena. “It seems BJP is not getting a clear majority. Nothing can happen without Shiv Sena’s support. Both BJP and Shiv Sena need to think about forming the government in the state,” RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athawale told reporters here. [caption id=“attachment_1763903” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ramdas Athawale.[/caption] Expressing regret over BJP and Shiv Sena’s decision to contest the elections on their own, he said, “Had BJP and Shiv Sena fought this elections together, they would have got 225-230 seats together.” Athawale said a Modi-wave had definitely helped BJP to emerge as the single-largest party in the state. “There has been a Modi-wave. There were big rallies held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So, certainly that (wave) has been there,” he said. BJP has won seven seats so far and was leading in 113 others in the 288-member Assembly, as per the trends. BJP’s erstwhile ally Shiv Sena has won seven seats till now and was leading in 48 others. Congress and NCP has so far won four seats each and were leading in 40 seats each respectively. PTI AKV