May be age of Modi, but don't insult Advani: Shiv Sena tells BJP

The next chapter of the continuing Shiv Sena versus Bharatiya Janata Party saga began on Saturday with Sena mouthpiece Saamna taking on its alliance partner for the apparent snub to veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani. The party patriarch was not only made to wait till the party’s final list to know where he would be contesting from, but was also not given the luxury of choosing his constituency. [caption id=“attachment_1429175” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Uddhav Thackeray in this file photo. AFP[/caption] In an editorial titled “A Small Matter, A Big Accident’, the daily newspaper has said it is an insult to Advani that his name was not declared in the first list of BJP candidates. “It is true that the the Modi Yug (the age of Modi) has begun in the BJP, but the sun has not set on the Advani Yug in national politics,” the editorial said. It further argued that party president Rajnath Singh had sought out a safe seat in Lucknow for himself because his current constituency Ghaziabad appeared inconvenient this election. Navjot Singh Sidhu was denied his ticket from Amritsar which was then used to accommodate Arun Jaitley, while Modi himself had selected the additional seat of Varanasi at the cost of veteran Murli Manohar Joshi’s ire. “If these leaders can select their constituencies, why not Advani?” the editorial said. Pointing to Advani’s “struggle and sacrifice” behind the building of the BJP, the newspaper said even if he is almost 90 years old, Advani’s energy can put youngsters to shame. He holds a valuable position as the paternal figure of the party, it said. Stating that the Sena does not wish to air its opinions publicly on what is going on within the BJP, it cautioned the senior alliance partner that the media reports of the internal rivalries and battles within the party would be watched closely by the people through the media and people would form their own opinions regarding the state of affairs in the BJP. The editorial goes on to admit, however, that there is indeed a Modi effect across the country, not just on electronic media. “There is no uncertainty that the next government will be an NDA government led by Modi. And, as the oldest alliance partner, the Shiv Sena remains committed to the NDA, but we must also acknowledge that a senior leader such as Advani has not lost touch with the people of the country,” the editorial said. The BJP and the Sena have had a torrid relationship over the past few weeks with the Sena first crying foul over former BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s decision to approach the MNS asking the latter not to field candidates against NDA candidates. A furious Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had then called a press conference not only threatening to contest all 48 seats in Maharashtra on its own, without the BJP, but also asking publicly who runs the party’s affairs in the state, a pointed reference to the Gadkari versus Gopinath Munde rivalry in the Maharashtra BJP. Mollified temporarily, the Sena once again raised the heat on the BJP by not declaring until Friday evening that it would not field a Shiv Sena candidate against Narendra Modi in Varanasi. There has been speculation for almost a year now that there could be a redrawing of alliances in Maharashtra after the Lok Sabha polls, with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Maharashtra NAvnirman Sena, two aggressive parties, both appearing increasingly close to the BJP. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has been at pains to deny such a coming together of the BJP and the NCP, while BJP leaders have been quick to clarify that the Sena remains an integral part of the NDA, But clearly, Bal Thackeray’s party has got the whiff of something it is not comfortable with. It appears that through this editorial, Uddhav Thackeray wants to send out the message that while he remains committed to the NDA, he is not one to take any slight lying low, nor would he stop short of maintaining the Shiv Sena’s independent opinions while being within the NDA. And he is not beyond going it alone if the BJP attempts to push him to the corner.