Alliance with BJP to continue: Sena

Paying tributes to late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, considered the architect of the BJP's alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the Sena today said it would strive hard to continue the tie up.

"We will strive hard to maintain the ties with the BJP, which we have held so far due to an ideology," Shiv Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece, Saamna. The newspaper is edited by party supremo Bal Thackeray.

"No other leader would be able to occupy his (Mahajan) place in our heart," it said.

"Only time would tell who takes the place of this Lakshman of BJP in that party in the state and the country", the editorial said. "Vajpayee may have called him lakshman, but for us, he was the Hanuman, who thwarted all dangers", it said.

"The fame that mahajan got during his lifetime...He got several times more fame after his death", it said.

"We are not hungry for power. Till the time the BJP does not discard the Hindutva agenda to a corner, we will remain with them as a hindutva friend", the paper added.