Lok Sabha elections 2014: Sena hits out at BJP again

Just when the BJP thought it had settled matters between itself and its miffed ally Shiv Sena an editorial appeared in the latterrsquos mouthpiece Saamana expressing doubts over the formersrsquo promises to keep the alliance aliveTwo days after Shiv Sena chief was assured by visits from BJPrsquos state chief Devendra Fadnavis and general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy and a phone call from PM candidate Narendra Modi an editorial in Saamana raised questions whether the Sena could trust the BJPrsquos promise that it wonrsquot cosy up to archrival Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNSThe editorial in Saamana has criticised the BJP for making allies in other states who have been against the Hindutva agenda File PicThe piece raises the issue of Hindutva and claims that the Sena would never leave Hindutva for power Not only this the Sena has also threatened that if the time comes they can fight the elections aloneldquoWe want an assurance from the BJP that it wonrsquot go around making allies without asking the existing ones Also the way itrsquos tying up with parties isnrsquot good it confuses our voters Not only in Maharashtra but also in other states the BJP is allying with parties that opposed the Hindutva agendardquo said a senior Sena leader The last part referred to BJP joining hands with Ramvilas Paswan in Bihar who had opposed Modi at one timeAddressing the media yesterday at his residence Uddhav Thackeray reiterated that he is awaiting a final comment from Modi and party president Rajnath singhBJP saysThe party has decided to keep mum on the editorial Party spokesperson Keshav Upadhyay simply said ldquoNo commentsrdquo when asked about it However a senior leader said on condition of anonymity ldquoWe are trying our best to get Modi as the PM of the country and for this we are making allies We agree the MNS issue wasnrsquot handled in the best way and such things would be kept in mind henceforthrdquoCMrsquos intervention prevents clash between BJP amp SenaTimely intervention by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan ensured that the two warring partners BJP and Shiv Sena steered clear of a fight in the biennial polls to the State Council Chavan took extra efforts to avoid the elections altogether fearing cross voting would lead to chaos on the eve of the coming Lok Sabha electionsSmart move The CMrsquos move helped avoid a headon collision between the Sena and the BJPThe state council had nine vacancies for which ten candidates were in the fray ndash three each from the Congress and NCP two each from the BJP and the Shiv Sena Each candidate needs the support of 29 MLAs to get elected in the first round of the preferential voting system When Shiv Sena with its 47 MLAs fielded two candidates the BJP fumed The two candidates had little chance of winning as the Sena was falling short of eleven votes to reach the desired 58 support votes 29 for each candidate Instead the BJP felt the Sena should have one candidate and the rest of the Sena MLAs could vote for BJP to help their two men get elected to the council The Sena however had disagreed to thisThis had led to BJPrsquos leader of opposition Vinod Tawde who was also contesting to meet MNSrsquo Raj Thackeray to rake in his 12 MLAs to support him This meeting had ticked off Shiv Sena chief Uddhav ThackerayMeanwhile Chavan himself feared some Congress legislators would cross vote possibly causing an embarrassment to the Congress candidate mdash a few years ago Congress candidate Sudhakar Gangane had suffered defeat due to cross votingldquoChavan stepped in late night on Wednesday to convince Sena candidate Rahul Narvekar to withdraw his nomination as no headway between the Sena and BJP was in sightrdquo sources from the Congress saidAfter much dillydallying Narvekar acquiesced and the nine were elected unopposed mdash Ravikiran Deshmukh