A war of words broke out between the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) over reports that four of the six corporators who had defected from the MNS were going to rejoin the party. The Shiv Sena rubbished the reports and late in the evening produced a letter in which all the six corporators reaffirmed their support to the party. On Wednesday , MNS leaders had claimed that Datta Narvankar, Archana Bhalerao, Parmeshwar Kadam and Harshala More had shown willingness to rejoin the party. Two of these corporators are reported to have spoken to MNS chief Raj Thackeray on the phone. MNS leaders claimed that by evening the four could rejoin the party. A miffed Sena, meanwhile, herded all the six corporators and subsequently scotched romours of their defection and in the evening distributed a letter signed by the six in which they reaffirmed their support to the Sena. “We six corporators are with the Shiv Sena and will remain with the party. Please do not believe in rumours. This is a conspiracy to defame us. The public should not believe in these rumours,” the letter stated. Six of the seven corporators from the MNS had a fortnight back joined the Sena. The MNS had claimed that money had changed hands to engineer the defection. The Sena had, however, claimed that the six had joined the party for the pride of the local Marathis and Marathi pride. “They did what they did for the sake of Marathi pride. We do not see this as a defection or horse-trading. By claiming that these men defected because of the lure of money is to disrespect Marathi pride,” an edit in Saamana had stated.
