The relations between the two have recently suffered over the Ramesh Kini issue.
As in the past, the BJP has refused to have any alliance or understanding with the Shiv Sena in the Uttar Pradesh elections.
However, enouraged by its performance during the recent general elections, the Shiv Sena is set to spread its wings outside Maharashtra and lay claim to the same suport base as that of the BJP.
During the last assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Shiv Sena had failed to win even a single a seat.
It is clear that Shiv Sena is confined to Maharashtra, and there is no question of the BJP conceding any seats to the party outside the state, least of all in Uttar Pradesh, but the Sena contesting all the seats adds a new dimension. The point to be seen during the Uttar Pradesh elections is whether the Shiv Sena leaders criticise and target the BJP too alongwith other parties. If they do that, it would mean a new low in our relationship, a senior BJP leader told the Business Standard.
This scenario comes in the backdrop of the recent announcement of the Shiv Sena supremo, Bal Thackeray, that the party would not have any alliance with the BJP during the forthcoming local bodies elections in Maharashtra.
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This has set the stage for a triangular contest and also an opportunity for the Congress to re-emerge on the political firmament in the state in a big way.
The recent meeting between Thackeray and Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda in Bombay was yet another development that raised hackles within the BJP.
Party sources said for some time they had visions of the 15-MP strong Shiv Sena joining the United Front government, but such fears had been set to rest during subsequent meetings between Sena leaders and Pramod Mahajan, the BJP leader instrumental in forging the alliance in Maharashtra.
During the local bodies elections expected to be held in early 1997, the BJP and Sena would, in all certainty, cut into each others' votes to the benefit of the Congress.
Elections would be held to nearly 10,000 seats at the corporation, panchayat and zilla parishad levels.
BJP sources admit that the Congress continues to be a entrenched at the village level unlike the Sena and the BJP, mainly in the sugar belt in western Maharashtra.
Our relationship with the Sena is no more what it was when we came to power in Maharashtra. Apart from the recent irritants, a major factor was the conciliatory posture adopted by Thackeray towards Shankersinh Vaghela of Gujarat. In any case, the actions of senior Sena leaders during the build-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections would be keenly watched by us. After all, how long can we be embarrassed by questions outside Maharashtra on the Ramesh Kini issue, the BJP leader said.