Alliance with NCP will be good for all: Thackeray

The possibility of an alliance between the NCP and Shiv Sena resurfaced today with Sena chief Bal Thackeray saying such an arrangement would be good for Maharashtra.

"I have said it in the past and I am saying it today that an alliance between our two parties will be in the interest of Maharashtra's development," Thackeray told reporters at his suburban Bandra residence.

"Pawar is an old friend and I have been saying that if the two parties come together, it will be in the interest of Maharashtra," he said.

Thackeray had hinted at such an alliance in an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece, Saamna, last year, and expressed similar views at the launch of his photo-biography in 2005, during which Pawar too was present.

Asked about the Sena's alliance with the NCP in the recent mayoral elections in Pune , the 80-year -old Thackeray said, "The two parties can do a lot together." He was speaking to reporters after releasing a book on a well-known Marathi poet and lyricist.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar had said in Baramati on Saturday that his party was open to alliances with any party, including the Shiv Sena.