Now, Shiv Sena rakes up PM candidate issue

The late Bal Thackeray had openly supported Sushma Swaraj as NDA's PM candidate

 

The Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked its over-two-decade-old ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to declare its choice for a prime ministerial candidate and insisted a meeting of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies be convened to discuss the issue.

An editorial published in Sena mouthpiece Saamana on Wednesday said BJP must disclose whether its presumptive prime minister was Narendra Modi.

The editorial asked BJP not to take the Shiv Sena for granted.

“While Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi might be one of the prime ministerial candidates, BJP must note that NDA will take a final decision,” the editorial said.

Sena founder, the late Bal Thackeray, had openly supported Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, as NDA’s PM candidate. Thackeray’s son and the party’s president, Uddhav Thackeray, has not directly opposed Modi’s candidature, though he has argued the decision should be taken by NDA allies.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last week asked BJP to decide on the prime ministerial nominee by December this year. Kumar indicated his party, the Janata Dal (United), would quit the BJP-led NDA, if the Gujarat chief minister was selected as the PM candidate.

Kumar also suggested the buck stopped with the Gujarat government for the riots of 2002 in that state.

However, the Shiv Sena, in its Saamana editorial, observed the Gujarat chief minister could not be blamed for the riots. “Had anybody else been in Modi’s place, the riots would still have taken place,” the Sena said.