BJP used its trump card to get Shiv Sena to agree to poll alliance

BJP leadership told Sena's interlocutors that the party did not consider the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) as "political untouchables"

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said sources, used its trump card to get the Shiv Sena to agree to an alliance in Maharashtra. The alliance was announced on Monday after a meeting between BJP President Amit Shah and Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray. During the meeting, the BJP leadership told Sena's interlocutors that the party did not consider the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) as "political untouchables". That was the "trigger" for the Sena to lower its guard on the issue of an alliance. "The fear of NCP and MNS