Uddhav asks BJP to clarify its stand on MNS

In a bid to placate him, Narendra Modi tonight spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who is cut up over BJP's recent overtures to his estranged cousin and MNS chief Raj Thackeray, and is understood to have assured him that the 25-year-old Sena-BJP alliance is intact.
Modi's phone call came after senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy met Uddhav here this evening.
"Modi told Uddhav that Shiv Sena is the oldest and trusted ally of BJP," a senior Sena leader told PTI, adding it was conveyed that the alliance is intact.
Shiv Sena is fuming after senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari met Raj Thackeray, Uddhav's arch rival in Maharashtra, reportedly to persuade the latter to help in avoiding a split in the saffron votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The hush hush meeting took place in a hotel here last week.

Modi sought to allay apprehension over the current development, the Sena leader said.
An agitated Uddhav earlier put BJP on notice asking it to clarify its ties with MNS.

He taunted its alliance partner asking whether whether it will be okay for it to take anybody's support like AAP did with Congress in Delhi.
"BJP should clarify who is authorised in Maharashtra BJP to take decisions?" Uddhav told reporters after a meeting of his party office bearers and Lok Sabha candidates.
Rudy met Uddhav at the latter's residence Matoshree at suburban Bandra to mollify him and later said all was well with the Sena-BJP alliance.

"Shiv Sena has been our old ally. It has been an integral part of NDA," Rudy said.
To a query on Uddhav's statement earlier in the day seeking to know who was BJP's leader in Maharashtra, Rudy said "It is my belief that the state unit president (Devendra Fadnavis) is our leader here. There is nothing surprising or controversial in this."
Rudy also said Uddhav had a "satisfactory" telephonic talk with BJP President Rajnath Singh on the current situation.