‘Sena should accept BJP as equal partner’

NAGPUR: Asking the Shiv Sena to realise its limitation of being a regional party, senior RSS ideologue, M G, alias Baburao Vaidya, has suggested the BJP to severe its ties with the Sena, if the saffron ally does not accept the BJP as an equal partner.

“So far the Sena has always played big brother to the BJP in Maharashra, but it must realise its limitation as a regional party. The BJP is a national party. The BJP workers are not ready to play a second fiddle to the Shiv Sena and they wish that their party leaders should respect their sentiments,” Vaidya, a former RSS spokesperson, wrote in his weekly column ‘Bhashya’ on Sunday.

The RSS however has always maintained that the views expressed by Vaidya in his columns may not always be an official line of the Sangh. Vaidya wrote, “The BJP can forge an alliance with the Sena before or after the 2009 elections, but that alliance should be on an equal footing and without compromising on its ideological position.”

“Those of us away from politics but sympathising with the BJP feel it shouldn’t compromise on its stated ideological positions while striking alliance with any party to form a government on a common agenda. But the party is beyond the government, which has to deal with the pressures of immediacy. There is no reason why the party should bow down.”