Alliance of 'natural allies' passing though difficult phase

Mumbai, July 24 (UNI) It was in November 1984, during the Lok Sabha elections held after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Shiv Sena and the BJP came together for the first time and now after 23 years, the two saffron parties swearing by 'Hindutva' are facing friction in their ties.

The differences between them erupted when the Shiv Sena decided to support UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil on account of her being a Maharashtrian, rejecting the BJP's call for backing the candidature of Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the Presidential poll.

Shiv Sena was described as a ''natural ally'' by senior BJP leaders like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and others and late Pramod Mahajan was considered the architect of the alliance.

After contesting seven Lok Sabha and four Assembly elections in Maharashtra, sharing power in the State from 1995 to 1999 and at the Centre from 1998 to 2004, tension prevails in the two parties.

Though the immediate reason for the tension between the two parties is the presidential poll, according to sources, the tension had been brewing between two parties since the last three years.

Sources in both the parties admit that the excellent relations that Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and late Mahajan enjoyed are not continuing among the new leadership of both the parties.

Uddhav took reins of Shiv Sena in his hand and senior Thackeray started keeping a low profile due to ill-health. The tension between Uddhav and late Mahajan started during 2004 Assembly elections over seat-sharing. Political sources say that the tension reached such an extent that they stopped talking to each other.

At the same time, Shiv Sena faced tough time at the home front as senior leader and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane and nephew of Shiv Sena chief Raj, also quit the party accusing Uddhav of ''arrogant behaviour.'' The exit of the two leaders gave a big jolt to Shiv Sena and taking the benefit of the same, BJP started increasing their 'bargaining capacity'.

On the other hand, BJP also faced a blow with the murder of Mahajan and the BJP reins went into the hands of Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari combine.

Shiv Sena leaders admit that the Presidential election was the bone of contention betwen the two parties. A source said that two school of thought prevailed in Shiv Sena about the support to Ms Patil. While one thought was it would be better to go with BJP as the support to Ms Patil would obviously have meant support to Congress, on the other hand, the other viewpoint supported the candidature of Ms Patil, being the first Maharashtrian fighting for the post. However, after the decision was taken to support the UPA nominee, no cross voting took place from 56 Sena MLAs and 16 MPs.

''We are particularly annoyed with the style of functioning of Uddhav and his coterie,'' said a BJP leader who wished to remain anonymous.

''Right now we are gauging the response from various regions about the fate of the alliance and we will take our decision during our executive meeting next month and will send the observations to the party high command, which will announce its decision,'' he added.

When contacted, senior Sena leader and former Speaker of Lok Sabha Manohar Joshi said tension prevailed among the two parties for five times in last 23 years but always the two parties stayed together for the cause of Hindutva. He said he expected that even this time, around the alliance will remain intact.

Already, Mr Gadkari and Mr Munde have hinted that the BJP is prepared to contest all the 288 seats on its own in the next polls while Uddhav Thackeray is maintaining that the ball is in BJP's court and the BJP will only decide the fate of the alliance.

UNI