Hinting at a "secret understanding" between the BJP and the MNS, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan Tuesday said the BJP seems no longer interested in its alliance with Shiv Sena.
Chavan claimed that this was the reason why the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has put up select candidates for different Lok Sabha constituencies against candidates from the Shiv Sena, headed by his estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray.
"The manner in which an old ally is being treated and insulted by the BJP, it is upto the Shiv Sena to decide how much more humiliation it should suffer," he said.
Attacking Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Chavan said that a person like Amit Shah, who is his right-hand man, who speaks of "revenge" for the communal riots in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar last September, it only shows their mindset.
"They have realized now that only speaking of communalism will not get them votes, so they harp about developmental issues... but, communalism is their basic mentality and they cannot come out of it," he said, taking a dig at Modi's oft-repeated developmental agenda.
Even corporate India has now realized that under Modi's "dictatorial leadership", there is little scope for debate or dissent, said Chavan.
Referring to the April 10 elections in Vidarbha in eastern Maharashtra, he expressed confidence that in view of the high morale of the party cadres, the UPA would bag all the 10 seats there.