Sena-BJP alliance comes under cloud on Chimur constituency

Mumbai, Oct 4 (UNI) Barely five months after the death of senior BJP leader late Pramod Mahajan, the architect of BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, the 22-year-old Shiv Sena-BJP alliance has come under a cloud on the issue of claiming one seat in the Maharashtra by-elections.

The Sena-BJP alliance was first worked out during the 1984 Lok Sabha elections and since then, the two allied parties had contested seven Lok Sabha and four Vidhan Sabha elections together apart from sharing the power in the local bodies.

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani always considered Shiv Sena as an important ally. Mr Thackeray himself maintained that Hindutva was the major factor that was keeping these two parties in alliance.

But according to political analysts, with the exit of late Mahajan from the political horizon and against the backdrop of frail health of Mr Thackeray and his son Uddhav taking over the party functioning, changes are occurring.

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