Munde showed self respect by resigning: Thackeray

Munde, after his face-off with top BJP leadership, had declined to go to Delhi to meet the party president Rajnath Singh and had met Bal Thackeray at ‘Matoshree’.

Thackeray said in the editorial that he did not wish to add fuel to the fire that was raging in the BJP folds following Munde’s resignation as it was the saffron party’s ‘internal matter’.

“But the inferno that has engulfed BJP by Munde’s action itself cannot be brought under control even if one hundred fire fighters are pressed,” he added.

The Sena chief, nevertheless, said that Munde was justified in asking Rajya Sabha ticket for Rekha Mahajan, widow of the late Pramod Mahajan (which went to Prakash Jawdekar).

“Since the murder of Mahajan, many close associates of the powerful leader including Munde were being sidelined by the BJP leadership,” Thackeray said noting that it was Mahajan who played a pivotal role in forging the over two-decade-old Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra and Munde endeavoured to sustain it.

Referring to the differences between Munde and Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Thackeray said, “Perhaps Gadkari and Vinod Tawde (former BJP Mumbai unit President) might know the reasons behind Munde’s ire and suffocation within the party and his outburst that went against the RSS discipline which has moulded him politically.”