Maharashtra: Shiv Sena suffers setback, Sanjay Raut says 'We will succeed'

Mumbai: Even as the Shiv Sena failed to muster numbers to stake claim for government formation in Maharashtra, its ailing leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday quoted lines of legendary poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan to reaffirm his party's resolve to succeed and not give up.

Raut, who on Monday underwent angioplasty at a hospital here, tweeted two lines from Bachchan's famous poem: "Lehron se dar kar nauka paar nahi hoti, himmat karne waalon ki kabhi haar nahi hoti" (the boat that qualms the waves never gets across, those who dare do not lose). The Rajya Sabha member further tweeted, "Hum honge kamyaab, zaroor honge" (we would succeed, definitely).

The 57-year-old firebrand leader, who led the Sena's charge to seek equal share in power with the BJP after the Assembly poll results in Maharashtra, complained of chest pain on Monday following which he underwent angioplasty at the Lilavati Hospital here.

The Shiv Sena on Monday suffered a setback in its efforts to cobble up a non-BJP government in Maharashtra with the Congress at the last moment announcing its decision to hold more talks with ally NCP on supporting the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

While Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said two parties (Congress and NCP) have agreed "in-principle" to support the Sena-led government, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari refused additional time sought by his party to muster numbers.

Later, the NCP, which is the third largest party in the state, got an invite from the governor, asking it to express "willingness and ability to form government". With 54 MLAs, the NCP is the third largest party after the BJP (105) and the Shiv Sena (56) in the 288-member House, where the halfway mark in 145. The Congress has 44 MLAs.