Don't pin hopes on us, Sena tells BJP

Ruling out the possibility of rapprochement with the BJP, the Shiv Sena on Monday hit out at its former ally for taking the support of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra.

“We do not need to sit and think over what went wrong (with the BJP) during the Assembly elections and what happened thereafter. But whoever has brought Maharashtra to a state where it has to repent for the misdeeds that happened lately should not look towards the Sena with hope in the future,” the party said in an edit in its mouthpiece Saamana, on the second death anniversary of Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

After extending support from outside to the BJP government, NCP chief Sharad Pawar last week took a broom in his hands in a gesture signalling bonhomie between the two parties. The Sena failed to strike a deal with the BJP to join the government but has assumed the post of leader of opposition in the state.

“The BJP has received much more flak for the drama that happened on the day of trust vote than what the Congress and the NCP received during their 15-year rule in the state. The dreams and hopes of the people of state have been shattered. Who will pay for this now?” it asked.

The Sena said the Assembly results have shown that people from Gujarat, Rajasthan, south and north India, who were helped by Bal Thackeray in difficult times, forgot it and voted for the BJP.

It also said some of the ministers in the state Cabinet were bent on reducing the importance of Mumbai as India's commercial and financial capital.