Sena has supported Maharashtrian woman not Congress: Uddhav

Mumbai, June 26 (UNI) Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray today said his party had not offered support to Congress Presidential nominee but to a Maharashtrian woman Pratibha Patil, who is getting an opportunity to reach the coveted post, and asserted the decision would not affect the Sena's 23 year old alliance with BJP.

Talking to reporters, Mr Thackeray said ''we took this different stand but it was limited to only for the presidential election and and on an earlier occasion too, the Sena-BJP combine had taken different stand during the presidential election''.

When asked about issue of Hindutva being raised by BJP, Mr Thackeray said that the BJP should not teach them Hindutva and we have never given it up.'' ''We have made our displeasure in public about President A P J Abdul Kalam for his inaction on the issue of hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru, an accused in the Parliament attack case,'' Mr Thackeray said, adding that they will convey their expectations to Ms Patil too.

''We told the BJP leaders that we wanted to take a different stand on the issue of Presidential election,'' he said, denying there was any deal between Sena and Congress in lieu of support to Ms Patil. He was replying to a question about the allegations made by BJP General Secretary Gopinath Munde that Sena supported Ms Patil after getting assurance from Congress that former Sena strongman and Revenue Minister Narayan Rane will not be made Chief Minister.

Asked about Party chief Bal Thackeray's statement made on the 41st anniversary of the party recently that Sena should come to power on its own in Maharashtra, Mr Thackeray said ''everybody has the right to see their party grow.'' When asked whether Sena and BJP would be together in 2009 assembly elections, he quipped one could not predict what will happen after two years.

UNI