By IANS
Nagpur : A crucial two-day meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Maharashtra unit executive committee begins here Friday amid claims by its ally Shiv Sena of going it alone in the next assembly elections.
The meeting, also to be attended by film stars Hema Malini, Shatrughna Sinnha and Dara Singh besides TV artistes Vani Tripathi and Smriti Irani, is the first under the leadership of former minister Nitin Gadkari and perhaps the last before assembly elections take place in 2009.
It will also be the first time the BJP's state unit executive will meet in the absence of the charismatic Pramod Mahajan, who was killed last year by his brother Pravin, leaving the centre-stage to his brother-in-law Gopinath Munde, the party's national general secretary.
While the BJP leadership has always underscored the need to continue its alliance with Shiv Sena "to prevent the division of Hindu votes", it would be interesting to watch the reaction to Shiv Sena leader Balasaheb Thackeray's remark that his party aims to win power in Maharasthra on its own strength "like Mayawati has done in Uttar Pradesh".
While state BJP president Gadkari said it would be wrong to see in Balasaheb's remark the possibility of the BJP-Shiv Sena ties coming apart, some party leaders have sought a "fitting reply" to Thackeray.
"It is right and natural for every party to constantly aim for improving its strength and for its leaders to motivate its cadres towards that goal", Gadkari told IANS, referring to Thackeray's statement at Shiv Sena's 41st anniversary function at Shanmukhanand Hall in Mumbai Tuesday.
He however avoided commenting on the Shiv Sena leader's remark in the same speech that it would be better to support a Marathi Pratibha Patil than a "fugitive" (Bhairon Singh) Shekhawat "who talks of withdrawing from the fray in favour of (A.P.J. Abdul) Kalam".
The BJP rank and file are disturbed over the Shiv Sena leader's remark about Shekhawat.
Apart from deliberating on farmers' suicides, falling prices of sugarcane and cotton, and unemployment, the BJP delegates will also listen to the speeches of two special invitees from the NGO sector – Abhay Bang of SEARCH, Gadchiroli, on rising child mortality due to malnutrition, and Anil Shidore of Green Earth, Pune, on the agrarian crisis.