Shiv Sena To Sit In Opposition In Parliament, Skip NDA Meet: Sanjay Raut

Sources said that Shiv Sena MPs Sanjay Raut and Anil Desai will now sit in the opposition benches during the Winter Session of Parliament, beginning Monday. Shiv Sena has three MPs in the upper house of parliament.

Rajya Sabha sources said that the sitting arrangement of Shiv Sena MPs has been changed and Raut and Desai will sit in the opposition benches now.

The Shiv Sena said it will not attend the Sunday's meeting of NDA constituents in Delhi on the eve of the winter session of Parliament beginning on November 18.

Raut also said that the Uddhav Thackeray-led party walking out of the BJP-headed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) remains a formality now.

In a sharp jibe at its estranged ally-turned-foe, the BJP, Raut said the NDA was not somebody's property.

"The Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal were equally important founders of the alliance," he added.

Shiv Sena and BJP have parted ways following differences over power-sharing in Maharashtra. The two had fought the assembly polls together and won a majority in the results announced last month.

Shiv Sena insisted that there had been an understanding between the two parties on having the chief minister for two-and-a-half-years each. The BJP, however, has said there has been no understanding on the issue.

The Shiv Sena is now engaged in parleys with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress to form a non-BJP government in the state.