Sena keeps cards close to the chest

Amid indications that it was not being averse to the candidature of UPA-Left presidential nominee Pratibha Patil, the Shiv Sena, a key constituent of the NDA, said it would announce on June 19 whom it would support in the next month's poll.

Sources said a group led by former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi was in favour of supporting Shekhawat. Their argument was that doing otherwise would harm the party's credibility since its ties with the BJP were more than 20 year old. However, a group led by party's general secretary and senior MLA Subhash Desai argued that since the Sena had been fighting for the rights of Maharashtrians for 40 years, supporting a candidate from the state should not be a problem.

They argue that the other parties will exploit the party's opposition to a Maharastrian to the hilt.

Sources said Thackeray had decided to support Home Minister Shivraj Patil, after getting enough political mileage out of its initial opposition to his candidature.

"Since Shivrajaji is occupying the position of home minister, we needed answers from him on some issues before we could have extended support," said party's Rajya Sabha MP and spokesman Sanjay Raut.