Mumbai: In yet another clear signal of the extremely strained relations in Maharashtra's ruling coalition, the Shiv Sena, Wednesday, launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders.
Posters have come up in Mumbai that depict Narendra Modi bowing before Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
Chiding the PM and others, the poster says, “those who do dhong should not forget the day when their head used to bow before saheb.”
Besides Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Nitiin Gadkari, LK Advani, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Raj Thackeray are portrayed in the poster.
After mocking BJP, the Sena has removed the controversial poster. "We only put up posters to remember our old days. It is not to disrespect any political leader," said Sena's Rajendra Raut.
The relationship between the Shiv Sena and the BJP took a dive after the BJP emerged as the dominant partner in the state. The Sena had to swallow the bitter pill and join the Devendra Fadnavis government as a junior partner.
Since then the Sena leadership has been creating obstacles and taking divergent views from the BJP on issues like recent attack on Sudheendra Kulkarni and threat to Ghulam Ali and other Pakistani artists and sports persons.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had hit out those who are using violence as a method of protest. Without naming Shiv Sena, he asked them to adopt "civilised mode" of discussing and debating issues.
"All right-thinking sections will have to distance themselves from these methodologies," he said when asked about BJP ally Shiv Sena's protest against the BCCI-PCB meet and the book launch of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
Recently, the Sena was sidelined by the BJP after it did not invite party president Uddhav Thackeray for Modi's functions in Mumbai. Modi laid the foundation stone for Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's memorial at Indu Mills in Dadar and conducted 'bhoomi pujan' for two new Metro lines at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), where he also addressed a rally.
The invitation was sent only at the 11th hour and Uddhav decided to visit Marathwada to review the drought situation there.
With new episode unfolding almost everyday in the BJP-Sena alliance, it is to be seen whether the alliance will be able to survive the test of the time.
