Munde, Thackeray take alliance to brink and back

After the Shiv Sena and BJP failed to reach an agreement on seat sharing in the Corporation, a bitter fight ensued with both the parties indulging in mud-slinging. The first salvo was fired by Munde, who at a public meeting on Monday last, called upon the party workers to “immerse” the Shiv Sena.

When the Sena took strong exception to Munde’s statement, Munde and Pramod Mahajan called on Thackeray. At the meeting it was agreed that there would be no criticism of the Sena and that Thackeray too would not react to Munde’s statement. But at his public rally, Thackeray rubbished Munde and the BJP prompting Munde to launch another acid attack on the Sena on Friday night.

As the report of Munde’s public meeting reached Thackeray, he was terriblyupset and ordered his ministers out of the Central cabinet. However, senior Sena leaders, particularly Joshi, succeeded in persuading Thackeray to hold his hand. “Yes, we are all upset with Munde. His attitude will have an adverse impact on our efforts to topple the Democratic Front government,” said a senior Sena leader.

Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, confirmed the alliance was severely strained but did the inevitable papering over: “I have spoken to Munde and I the chapter stands closed. If at all the issue is to be discused again, the coordination committee of the alliance is the appropriate forum,” he said.

Munde too endorsed the views of Uddhav saying the criticism was limited only to the civic elections and as such, since the campaigning was over, now there were no differences with the Shiv Sena.

The Sena leaders said a delegation of the Shiv Sena will soon call on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani to apprise him of the political situation, particularly in the wake of statements made by Munde.