Tiger sets the cat among NCPigeons

In this season of pre-poll talks, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray spilled Maharashtra’s worst-kept political secret. He said the issue of...

In this season of pre-poll talks, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray spilled Maharashtra’s worst-kept political secret. He said the issue of Sharad Pawar’s NCP joining the NDA was discussed at his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani earlier this week.

Thackeray said he was not averse to the idea. His only condition: former deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal, a Shiv Sainik who broke away from the Sena, should be expelled from the party.

Less than a month ago, Thackeray had publicly threatened to walk out of the NDA if Pawar joined it. Today, he attributed his change of heart to ‘‘the need to strengthen the NDA Government, which is on the lookout for strong allies.’’

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However, he added: ‘‘It is impossible to think of an alliance with the NCP when Bhujbal is still in the party. He has to go before any such alliance.’’

Since the December-30 meeting between Advani and Thackeray, political circles have been agog with talk of Advani seeking Thackeray’s permission to allow Pawar to join the NDA.

During the discussion between the two leaders, Advani apparently told him that a BJP-Sena-NCP front would be in a position to win 35-40 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Now, the Sena has 15 seats, BJP 13, NCP 6, Congress 10 and Others four.

Though both BJP and NCP today denied any moves to draw Pawar into such an alliance, the Sena chief’s statement is also likely to shift the tone during seat-sharing talks between NCP and Congress, the constituents of the ruling coalition.

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Maharashtra’s Home Minister and state NCP chief RR Patil said: ‘‘This is ridiculous. We are already talking to the Congress for a pre-poll alliance. The NCP is a secular party and will not join the BJP-led coalition even if invited by the BJP. Advani can discuss anything under the sun but we are not entering the NDA. This is a ploy to keep the Dalit and Muslim votes away from the NCP.’’

Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said: ‘‘As the Congress-NCP talks are in progress I would not like to comment on the issue now.’’ The Congress, which recently set up a panel to discuss the alliance with NCP, is now of the view that Pawar would have to come clean on the subject. For the record, when asked to comment on Thackeray’s remarks, party chief Sonia Gandhi told reporters: ‘‘Let him say what he wants to say.’’

Thackeray, who was speaking to reporters at an impromptu press conference at his residence, said he would discuss the proposal with the party’s executive president Uddhav Thackeray and other party leaders. ‘‘But the final decision will be mine,’’ he said.