Mumbai: Defending Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s visit to Gandhinagar to attend the rally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before BJP president Amit Shah filed his nomination papers at Gandhinagar, Sena leaders claimed the visit would help defuse the tension that had existed between the Sena and BJP before they joined hands. The visit would help weed out differences between the workers of two parties, the leaders claimed.
During his visit to Gandhinagar, Uddhav had announced, although differences existed between his party and the BJP earlier, all the issues had been resolved now.
“The two parties had similar goals and their ideologies and hearts were woven together,” he had said. According to Sena sources, this will send a positive signal to Sainiks and the BJP, who have been at loggerheads for the last five years on several issues.
Senior Shiv Sena leader and industries minister Subhash Desai said, “Now that we have decided to contest together, there is a need for supporters of both parties to work together and ensure the victory of an alliance. In this context, Uddhavji’s Gujarat visit was very important. He has shown that top leaders are ready to join hands by burying the hatchet. Party workers should now follow suit.”
This is not the first time Thackeray has visited Gujarat to extend support to the BJP. In 2006, when Narendra Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat, sat on a fast to protest the central government’s stand on the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam in Ahmedabad, Uddhav was by his side. “Balasaheb himself had sent Uddhavji to show Sena’s solidarity to Modiji,” said Desai.
“Thackeray’s Gujarat visit will be used to sort out disputes among the Sena-BJP party workers. In the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency, there were some differences among party workers. But these have now been sorted out, in view of the camaraderie of the leaders,” said Desai.
