Shiv Sena officially out of NDA, not with UPA yet except on ‘key national issues’: Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray, Aaditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut (Image: PTI)

One of the oldest members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Shiv Sena, has officially quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led grouping.

While it has not formally joined the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) yet, it will be with them on "key national issues", The Indian Express has reported.

Questions over the Uddhav Thackeray-led party’s political affiliation were raised after it did not attend the opposition meeting on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizen (NRC) called by Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on January 13.

Clarifying Sena’s absence from the meeting despite being a Congress ally in Maharashtra, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) and party leader Sanjay Raut told the newspaper that no one from the party attended the meet due to "miscommunication".

"We would have attended the meeting, but there was some miscommunication. First, we thought the chief minister had been invited. But later it became known that any top leader could attend the meeting. In this confusion, we could not make it to the meeting," he stated.

Raut added that the Sena will participate in such meetings in the future.

On whether the Sena would formally join the UPA, Raut said: "Not as of now. If there is an offer to join UPA, we will discuss it in the party and take a decision." But, he added, the party is not with the NDA any longer. "We are out of NDA and are not attached to any group (at present)," he maintained.

Asked whether this means the Sena is ready to join UPA, Raut said that if there is an offer to do so, "we will discuss it in the party and take a decision."

He maintained that his party was however not a member of the NDA anymore.

He added that if the UPA takes a stand on any national issue or issues of national security, the Sena will support the opposition. "On key national issues, we will be with the UPA," Raut told the newspaper.