ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

BJP tells Sena to shut up or pull out in Maharashtra

The Bharatiya Janata Party, strongly reacting to the Shiv Sena's insulting statement against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on the issue of Vande Mataram and the visit of the Pakistan cricket team to India, today warned its ruling partner in Maharashtra to practise restraint or choose to quit the alliance in the state.

In a statement issued in Bombay, BJP state unit president Suryabhan Wahadane, while condemning the Sena's act of displaying allegedly derogatory cartoons of Vajpayee and Advani and questioning their patriotism during a demonstration held by it in the city yesterday, said the BJP will not tolerate such insults anymore.

Wahadane said the people had entrusted power to the BJP-Sena alliance in the state but it was not the responsibility of the BJP alone to sustain the alliance. It was necessary that parties of an alliance functioned following the principle of mutual understanding and adjustment. The BJP's stand had always been one of adjustment.

But this must not be construed as its weakness, he warned and said, "The ball is not in our court but in the Shiv Sena's court and I must make it clear that it is left to the Sena to decide whether to continue the alliance or not."

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report