MUMBAI, JUNE 14: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today offered to direct Sena candidate Kanhaiyalal Gidwani to withdraw from the race for the Legislative Council elections to avoid bitterness in the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and also said that the party would provide conditional support to Independent candidate Suresh Kalmadi with the surplus votes of BJP and Independents for the Rajya Sabha polls.In a statement issued here, Thackeray strongly refuted reports about the candidature of Gidwani and said that he was given a go-ahead to file his nomination after an assurance that his entering the fary will not harm the prospects of the official alliance candidates. ``If Gidwani could secure an extra seat for us on his own calculations, what's wrong in his candidature,'' he asked.The BJP had nothing to worry about this arrangement, he said and added that his party would stick to the decision made earlier about getting all official candidates of the alliance elected. ``Even after this clarification,those who wanted to bring about bickerings in the alliance were free to do so'', he added.Shiv Sena has fielded Satish Pradhan and Pritish Nandy while the BJP has fielded Pramod Mahajan for the Rajya Sabha and for the Council Diwakar Raote and Vijay Waddetiwar will contest on Shiv Sena ticket while Vijay Girkar, Pratap Sinh Mohite Patil and N S Pharande are contesting on the BJP ticket.Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party today formally pledged its support to the Congress for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections and set up a three-member team headed by film star and MP Raj Babbar to finalise the party's strategy for the Legislative Council elections which will also be held on the same day.Congress candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah and former Union cabinet secretary Ram Pradhan and the Council Elections candidates, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ranjit Deshmukh with party spokesman Vasant Chavan were present at the Samajwadi Party office here alongwith Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Madhukar Pichad and SP national general secretary Amar Singh for an informal gathering.Singh said the secular forces have decided to patch up their differences in order to gear up for the big fight against communalism. ``The Congress ignored us during the by-elections and in order to protect our self respect we contested one seat securing 15,500,'' he added.
