Modi no mediator for Uddhav, Raj: BJP

Senior BJP leaders dismissed rumours that Narendra Modi was working as a mediator to bring the estranged Thackeray cousins together ahead of 2014 elections. Dharmendra Jore reports.

Senior BJP leaders dismissed rumours that Narendra Modi was working as a mediator to bring the estranged Thackeray cousins together ahead of 2014 elections.

According to them, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by Raj Thackeray is fast losing its credibility.

Deputy opposition leader in Lok Sabha (BJP) Gopinath Munde denied rumours that Modi was playing the peacemaker.

Other leaders in the saffron party do not want MNS to join the coalition before or after the elections on its own terms and spoil the coalition’s bright prospects.

“There is no need for Modi to get in to a long-drawn battle between Uddhav and Raj (Thackeray). He has many other important things on his mind in view of a major role the party wants him to play in future,” a senior BJP leader said.

“MNS is fast losing credibility and hence it is trying to establish its political importance by hook or crook,” the leader said.

He refused to go on record because of media gag on a sensitive matter.

BJP’s state president Devendra Fadnavis could not be reached for comment but earlier he had told HT that the BJP had more serious issues to handle than getting MNS into the BJP-Shiv Sena fold.

A close aide of former BJP national president Nitin Gadkari said the leader saw no immediate possibility of the Thackerays getting closer politically. “Gadkari is friends with both cousins, but he has been avoiding any patch-up talks with them,” said the aide.

Party spokesperson Madhav Bhandari refused to talk on the subject but underlined that the BJP was getting stronger every day. “We have been performing well and we will do much better in the next elections,” he said.