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The continuing clash of egos between cousins, Uddhav Thackeray, chief of Shiv Sena, and Raj Thackeray of MNS, has finally forced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to play the role of a big brother trying to bring together the two warring cousins.
Senior leaders of the BJP have asked former party President Nitin Gadkari and deputy leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Gopinath Munde, to start a discussion within BJP in Maharashtra on how best the two brothers could be accommodate in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) if the BJP plans to win a considerable share in the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
For now, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has only 20 seats.
“The two senior leaders of BJP have been asked to talk to other members of the party in Maharshtra to find a way. It is the BJP that has suffered because of the two brothers and this cannot continue like this. The process to bring together the two brothers has started in the party,” said a senior BJP leader involved in Maharastra politics.
Maharashtra based BJP leaders pointed out that Raj Thackeray’s MNS has the same vote base as the BJP and Shiv Sena combine and he was taking considerable share of the vote share which was damaging the party. Senior BJP leaders pointed out that it was the fight between the two brothers that the alliance has not been performing well in the elections in the state.
“To be fair to Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena leader has tried to soften his stand towards Raj Thackeray but the MNS chief has not responded. Now Uddha Thackeray feels that if again tries give signals to bring back Raj, he might lose face before the members of Shiv Sena. It’s a question of ego now,” the BJP leader added.
BJP leaders are also discussing if the two brothers will support Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as NDA’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “Since it is known that Raj Thackeray is enjoys good relation with Narendra Modi, Uddhav Thackeray is not ready to back the Gujarat chief minister because he wants to be seen different from MNS,” the BJP leader added.
BJP leadership is also considering the possibility of quitting alliance with Shiv Sena and joining hands with Raj Thackeray but said that it was a distant possibility.
