BJP’s Maharashtra mascot Devendra Fadnavis reached New Delhi on Tuesday and held closed-door meetings with party leaders amid suggestions of a wider strategy to cripple the Thackeray family and turn the Shiv Sena into a moribund political force.

Fadnavis, who arrived here with lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, first met BJP chief J.P. Nadda and then called on Union home minister Amit Shah. On Monday, the Supreme Court had kept in abeyance the disqualification of 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs.

The presence of lawyer Jethmalani at the two meetings suggested that the BJP was mulling all legal options before making any move on government formation in the financial capital, party insiders said.

After returning to Mumbai, Fadnavis met Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari around 10pm and requested him to ask the state government to prove majority in the Assembly.

“It’s a matter of time before the Uddhav government collapses…,” one BJP functionary said. Officially, the BJP continued to claim through the day that it had no role in the rebellion led by Sena MLA Eknath Shinde.

The sources said the BJP’s decision to wait till now was part of a deliberate strategy to allow the rebellion in the Sena to strike deeper roots and in a manner that leaves the former ally in total disarray.

“We (the BJP) can form a government any day. But weakening the dynastic politics of the Thackerays is more important for us,” one BJP leader said, stressing how a weak Sena would help the BJP gain total dominance of a state that sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Party leaders pointed out how Shinde has been focusing on claiming that he represented the “real Shiv Sena”, accusing Uddhav of having compromised with the Hindutva plank and claiming that it was part of a strategy to discredit the Thackerays.

The BJP, a marginal force in Maharashtra, had aligned with the strident Sena, led by Bal Thacekray, in 1989. Over the years, however, the BJP used the Sena to grow in the state and finally emerged as a larger force than its ally. The current BJP sees the Uddhav-led Sena as an irritant in its path to gain total control over the Hindutva votes in the state.

“The Sena now draws its strength mainly from Mumbai. Across the state outside Mumbai, it’s the BJP,” a BJP leader said, expressing the hope that the ongoing crisis would dent the Sena even in Mumbai.

“The Shiv Sena is now split down the middle. The weakening of the Sena would only lead to the BJP getting strengthened,” this leader added.

Party leaders said that municipal elections in Mumbai later this year would clear the picture as to where the Thackerays and the Sena stand.

BJP leaders claimed that since the Shinde camp commanded the support of more than two-thirds of the Sena MLAs, it could easily form a separate group and merge with the BJP. “But so far, our leadership has not pushed Eknath to merge. We want Eknath to emerge as the leader of the Shiv Sena,” a BJP leader said.