Snap ties if you want: Thackeray

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI, AUG. 7. The Shiv Sena supremo, Mr. Bal Thackeray, today categorically told his party's belligerent ally, the BJP, ``you can snap the alliance, if you so desire''.The Sena chief, however, defended his Rajya Sabha member, Mr. Nirupam Sanjay. In his view, the MP had not erred for his barbs were against the Prime Minister's Office and not the Prime Minister. He asked the BJP not to be over-agitated, reminding it that the over 15-year alliance was an ideological one.

``We respect and love Mr. Vajpayee,'' he said reiterating that the Vajpayee Government should continue. Mr. Thackeray was speaking to mediapersons at a book-release function here.

He said it was the BJP which had come to the Sena for the alliance about 15 years ago when the former had no strength worth the name in Maharashtra and it owed its present political standing in the State to the Sena. ``They must know their limits as we know ours; I am an independent man and take my own decision.''

To a question on the Sena's continuation in the NDA at a press conference here before the Agra summit to air his strong views against any parleys, Mr. Thackeray had said, ``our problem is that if set loose, this creature (the BJP) runs away and if held tightly, it tends to bite.''

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