Articles in Saamna affecting BJP-Sena relations: Gadkari

The relationship between the BJP and the Shiv Sena struck a low point after BJP president Nitin Gadkari took offence at the language used to describe his party’s leaders in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna.

The relationship between the BJP and the Shiv Sena struck a low point after BJP president Nitin Gadkari took offence at the language used to describe his party’s leaders in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna.

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Blaming Saamna editor Sanjay Raut, Gadkari warned that such writings were causing rifts between the BJP-Shiv Sena’s three-decade-old alliance.

“The type of language that is used for BJP leaders in Saamna is not good for the success of the BJP-Sena alliance in the future,” BJP president Nitin Gadkari told a news channel in an interview.

Gadkari blamed Raut saying he was responsible for creating a rift through his writings.

“People like him should not write such things and spoil relations between the two parties,” Gadkari said.

Raut, who manages the day-to-day affairs of the Sena mouthpiece Saamna is close to Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

He has, however, earned the wrath of many Sena leaders and cadre for forming a coterie around the Thackeray family.

Gadkari also said he had no way of communicating with Bal Thackeray because his phone calls were not passed on to the Sena supremo. The Sena chief, in an interview recently, complained about the behaviour of the BJP leaders and said Gadkari had still not called him up for lunch after taking over as BJP president.

“I did call him up twice or thrice. However my calls were never forwarded to him,” Gadkari said.

Raut, in his defence, claimed that all that was written in Saamna is written with the Sena chief’s permission and the paper had never published anything derogatory about BJP leaders.