Don’t take in turncoats who gave Balasaheb hell, Uddhav tells BJP

MUMBAI: On a day Congress minister Narayan Rane announced he will quit, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray urged long-time ally BJP not to open its doors to those turncoats who had shown disrespect to the late Balasaheb Thackeray.
“We have a kind of MoU with the BJP that it should not induct those political
figures who had given trouble to the late Balasaheb. We hope the BJP will adhere to the MoU,” Thackeray told reporters at Sena Bhavan.
Asked to comment on reports that Rane could be on his way to the BJP, Thackeray said: “Those who quit the Sena may now be realizing their mistake. The question is not whether Rane wins or loses the assembly election. For me, the crucial question is to free Sindhudurg district (Rane’s bastion in Konkan) from terror. The BJP should not induct into the party those who had created hell for Balasaheb.”
Senior Maharashtra BJP leader Vinod Tawde said his party will heed Thackeray’s suggestion. “The Sena-BJP alliance is not merely a poll partnership. The two parties share a deep bond and ideological affinity. We will take the Sena’s view into consideration when taking major decisions,” said Tawde.
Observers said Thackeray’s strong stand may have put a spoke in Rane’s possible return to the saffron fold. Inquiries revealed that a section in the Maharashtra BJP was keen on welcoming Rane into the party fold, given his clout in the coastal Konkan region and his resource-raising ability.
Thackeray’s reference was to Chhagan Bhujbal’s and Narayan Rane’s revolts in 1992 and 2005, respectively, which had jolted the Sena. Both star rebels had ugly spats with the late Balasaheb, much to the consternation of Shiv Sainiks.
Asked if Rane and Bhujbal would engineer a revolt in the ruling Congress-NCP front, Thackeray said the two leaders were no longer politically strong to do so.
Earlier, Thackeray formally welcomed senior city NCP functionary Mangesh Bansode into the Sena at a function at Sena Bhavan. A lawyer and former NCP corporator, Bansode is a Bhujbal acolyte.
On Wednesday, speaking at a meeting in Jalgaon, Thackeray urged the NDA government to arrest journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik for meeting 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan recently. “We have plenty of hopes from the Modi government. The Centre should immediately put Vaidik behind bars for his seditious activities,” Thackeray said.