Rebel Sainiks form new party; accuse Thackeray of links with Pak

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Rebel Shiv Sainiks from North India today formed the Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena and accused Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray of trying to create a regional divide ''at the behest of Islamabad''.

Jai Bhagwan Goyal, who had recently created a vertical split in Shiv Sena, was announced as the founder president of Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena.

The former head of the North India unit of Sena claimed that the newly-formed outfit will react accordingly if violence against non-Marathis and North Indians continued in Maharashtra, especially Mumbai.

''We decided to form the new party as Mr Thackeray's Shiv Sena is only for Maharashtrians...we want to take the whole nation with us,'' claimed Mr Goyal.

Mr Goyal and state chiefs of the Shiv Sena from five North Indian states had resigned from the party in March to protest Mr Thackeray's son Uddhav's diatribe against North Indians living in Maharashtra.

In a letter to the President of India Mr Goyal charged Mr Thackeray with ''working for Pakistan to destabilise the country.

Earlier Pakistan had used the Khalistan issue and the Kashmir issue to create problems in India. Now they are using Thackeray to destabilise the commercial capital of India,'' Mr Goyal alleged.

He said Sena's attacks on Big B Amitabh Bachchan, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Union Minister Lalu Prasad were unwarranted.

Mr Goyal, who joined Shiv Sena in 1988, claims the support of 20 Shiv Sena leaders from Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

UNI NAB HS KN1518