Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party will take stock of its two-decade-old ties with the Shiv Sena this month when its Maharashtra unit is scheduled to hold its meeting and deliberate on the issue of continuing its ties with its key political ally.
Talking to reporters here, party general secretary Gopinath Munde, a senior party leader from Maharashtra, admitted that the ties with the Shiv Sena came under a “lot of strain and tension” during last month’s Presidential polls when it decided to support the UPA candidate Pratibha Patil.
Mr. Munde’s observations came after Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s talks with the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and BJP president Rajnath Singh over phone before Shiv Sena voted for NDA’s Vice-Presidential nominee Najma Heptulla.
“The NDA came into being only in the last six years but our ties with the Shiv Sena are more than two decades old. We thank them for their vote in the Vice-Presidential election but the State executive unit will decide on the future of the alliance,” he said.
