Final decision on alliance not possible before Aug 10: Gadkari

Mumbai, July 30 (UNI) The ball is back in Sena's court after Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari today said his party was not in a position to take the final decision on the continuation of the saffron alliance before August 10, adding that the Shiv was free to decide on whom to support in the vice-presidential election.

Mr Gadkari's statement holds significance as Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray had yesterday stated that BJP should decide on the Sena-BJP alliance before August 10 so that Shiv Sena can decide on its stand on the vice-presidential election scheduled for August 10.

In an informal chat with reporters at the State BJP headquarters, Mr Gadkari admitted that the relations between BJP and Shiv Sena had strained although the alliance had contested seven Lok Sabha and four Assembly elections together since 1984 and had even ran a coalition government in 1995 in the state.

''We have held three divisional level meetings with party workers to discuss the alliance and today I am going to meet a group of 13 MLAs to talk on the same issue,'' he said.

''BJP national general secretary Gopinath Munde and I will go to New Delhi to discuss the issue with party MPs. Later the opinions gathered during the meetings will be discussed in the State executive committee meeting and then a final decision will be taken,'' Mr Gadkari said.

''We will require some time to complete all the democratic process of gauging the varied opinions within the party and hence we can not take the decision before August 10,'' he explained.

When asked about Udhav Thackeray's statement regarding BJP's stand on Janta Dal (S) which is in alliance with the BJP in Karnataka and had abstained from voting in the presidential elections, Mr Gadkari said it was for the Karnataka BJP president to respond on the matter.

As to whether he had talked to Sena leaders on support for vice-presidential election, Mr Gadkari said ''We had discussions during the presidential election but there have not been any discussions later on.'' ''We respect Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray as we respect Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani,'' Mr Gadkari said. He said he was hurt when Uddhav Thackeray did not speak to him over telephone.

UNI