Mumbai: The relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena can be said to be like a roller-coaster ride.


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Though they are partners in Maharashtra, they fought the recently held local body elections in the state separately.


The campaigning during the polls was quite bitter to say the least.


However, later the Shiv Sena candidate was elected as the Mayor of Mumbai after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on March 04 announced that the BJP would not contest the Mayoral polls.


Interestingly, he had also made it clear at that time that the decision of the BJP should not be read as a "surrender" to ensure stability of his government.


Now, it's come to the fore that the BJP is mulling certain options so that it would not have to depend on the Shiv Sena to survive in Maharashtra.


According to Zee's 24tass , a meeting was held on Thursday which was supposedly attended by Fadnavis, Chandrakant Bacchu Patil and other BJP ministers.


In the meeting, three options were discussed so that they could tackle the Shiv Sena.


First was to try to take support of 30 NCP and Congress MLAs in case Shiv Sena creates problem during money bill.


Second, was to see if these MLAs could resign and then contest from BJP ticket.


And the third option was to go for Assembly elections again if feasible.


The report also said that the BJP leaders were likely to talk to PM Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah soon over the issue.


However, all of the above could also be a pressure tactic by the BJP to pressurise the Shiv Sena.