By IANS,
Mumbai : Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray Tuesday categorically rejected senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde’s suggestion to form a tripartite front which includes the Sena’s bête noire, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
In an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray said that the 22-year old Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the state has served as a soothing ‘Ram balm’ so there is no question of a third ‘Zandu balm’.
The sharp retort came a day after Munde, the BJP’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, again proposed inclusion of Raj Thackeray’s MNS into the SS-BJP alliance.
Last week, at the BJP state executive meeting in Aurangabad, Munde had first floated the suggestion which was rejected outright by Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.
A week later, Munde claimed before some mediapersons unofficially that his proposal had not been strongly rejected by both Sena and MNS.
Moreover, he contended that the ordinary workers of the two parties were in favour of such an alliance which could catapult these three opposition parties to power in the state.
In the editorial, Thackeray lauded the remarks of BJP senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad who said here that any talks of alliance with any party would be the prerogative of the party’s central leadership.
He asserted that the SS-BJP alliance in Maharashtra was on a strong footing and that the BJP always considered making alliances keeping a national perspective.
“There are many who are jealous of the 22-year old flourishing SS-BJP saffron alliance in the state and were keen to break it up. However, it was not formed with some selfish motives but for the cause of Hindutva,” Thackeray said in the edit.
In this context, he pointed out how – barring Maharashtra and Punjab – the BJP’s alliances in different states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh had suffered on various counts.
In an acerbic comment, Thackeray advised Munde that instead of talking like practicing the old family planning norm of ‘Do Ya Teen, Bas” (Two or Three, Enough) it is time to practice “Keval Do” (Only Two), as far as Maharashtra politics is concerned.