Advani's 'court' effects patch-up with Sena...

BJP OUT TO MEND FENCES

Lunch diplomacy at senior BJP leader LK Advani's house today did the trick, with Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari and Gopinath Munde saying the marriage between the Sena and the BJP had been saved "at the family court," that is, Advani's house.

The ties between the two parties had soured after the Sena voted for the UPA's candidate for president instead of NDA-backed Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

BJP General Secretary Gopinath Munde admitted that although certain differences had cropped up between the Sena and the BJP during the presidential election, these had been resolved.

When asked as to what rescued the 20-year-long "marriage," Munde said, "The children (party workers) told us that since the marriage had lasted for 20 years, it was foolish to end it in our old age."

Uddhav Thackeray said it was perhaps the generational shift from Pramod Mahajan and Balasaheb Thackeray to Uddhav Thackeray and the BJP's second generation that led to problems between the two parties.

"We have decided to put our differences behind and jointly fight both the Assembly and general elections with the larger goal of Hindutva in mind," he said.

Thackeray refused to answer questions on whether the seat-sharing arrangement, the other major issue between the two, would be changed. "We had lengthy discussions and that is all I will say on the matter," he said.

He said unlike the JD(U), which said it preferred Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the leader of the NDA, the Sena would support any candidate chosen by the alliance. "Be it Atalji or Advaniji or anybody else, we will be a part of the collective decision of the NDA," he said.

Thackeray and Munde denied that the patch-up happened because of fears that the Congress government in the state would implement the report of the Srikrishna Commission, which probed the Mumbai riots.

"We were allies before the Srikrishna report came out and will remain so in future," said Uddhav Thackeray.

Apart from Thackeray and Advani, BJP President Rajnath Singh, Maharashtra BJP President Nitin Gadkari, Gopinath Munde and former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi attended the meeting.