NEW DELHI: The final word on the future of the two-decade-old Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena relationship is not yet out but there were signs on Friday that matters were being sorted out.

Senior leaders of both parties made reconciliatory statements on the "natural alliance" and the need to undo any misunderstanding over contesting the Chimur Assembly by-election, the notification for which is to be notified soon.

BJP president Rajnath Singh expressed the confidence that the party's State leaders would be able to sort out the differences with the Sena. Sena leader Manohar Joshi was also reportedly downplaying the differences.

Apparently, a major irritant in the relationship is the attitude of the BJP State president Nitin Gadkari. The Sena leaders in Mumbai have made this known.

The BJP is aware that Pramod Mahajan had kept the Sena head Bal Thackeray in good humour and Mr. Gadkari and the former Deputy Chief Minister, Gopinath Munde, do not enjoy the same relationship with Mr. Thackeray.

BJP firm

While the BJP remains firm that it should, and would, contest the Chimur seat, it is aware that the Sena may not go to the extent of snapping ties with it on the issue of a single Assembly seat.

It appears that a few days ago, Udhav Thackeray, who now virtually runs the Sena, almost agreed to consider giving up Chimur in exchange for some other "winnable" seat in the next Assembly elections. However, a meeting at Mr. Bal Thackeray's residence on Wednesday night reportedly witnessed anger against Mr. Gadkari.

The BJP feels that the Sena is in no position to retain the seat. The Sena's former MLA, Vijay Vadettiwar, vacated the seat and crossed over to the Congress, while a strong independent candidate in the area, Ramesh Gajbe, has joined the BJP.

"It is in the Sena's interest to take a realistic view of the ground realities and let the BJP contest the seat and win it for the BJP-Sena alliance," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

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