Thackeray called an emergency meeting of all the top leaders of the party, the feuding cousins included, and gave them a dressing down following Friday's attack by Raj's supporters on two senior officials at the party office.

Thackeray reportedly expressed his utter displeasure with the way the party leaders were fighting at a time when they should be preparing for the election and saw in this an ``attempt to weaken him''. He did not elaborate who was trying to weaken and at whose behest, though.

Though the cold war between Raj and Uddhav over supremacy in the organisation is old hat, last week it reached the peak when the former came out openly against Uddhav and general secretary Subhash Desai -- whom he blames with taken sides against him. And, as if on cue, his supporters from the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, roughed upKiran Wadivkar and Sandeep Mhatre, personal staff of Subhash Desai. They also openly threatened that they would not allow Desai to step into Marathwada.

Even on Saturday, his supporters held an hour-long dharna outside his residence at Shivaji Park to express solidarity with him and demanded that he should continue to work for the organisation.

Concerned about the growing differences between the two cousins, Bal Thackeray had a series of meetings with Uddhav, Raj, Desai and Manohar Joshi over the last three days. But on Saturday, he not only expressed strong displeasure but also made it clear he would not tolerate such incidents in the future.

Raj reportedly told Thackeray that he was being ignored by the government as well as the organisation in the decision-making process. The main grievance of Raj was that he was not invited for the three regional conventions held at Kolhapur, Aurangabad and Nagpur which is vehemently denied by the other faction. He was also not invited for the coordination committeemeeting held last week to take a decision on holding simultaneous polls. Above all, he brought it to the notice of Thackeray that he was not at all involved in the on-going process of selection of candidates for the forthcoming elections to the Lok Sabha and assembly.

After the meeting, a suitably mollified Raj, said: ``Now there is no dispute. I have decided to work for the alliance. The incident that took place outside Sena Bhavan on Friday was unfortunate. Activists of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena should not have assaulted Wadivkar and Mhatre.'' Raj said even earlier, there were attempts to create a rift between him and Uddhav. ``We are working under the guidance of Balasaheb and we will continue to work for the cause of the alliance. We never aspired for any political post. We never thought that we should become either Chief Minister or a cabinet member,'' Raj added.

Raj said he has sought resignations of all those district heads of Sena, who threatened that they will not allow Desai to move inMarathwada. ``Such powers are only with Bal Thackeray, Desai is our respected leader,'' he said.On the selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, Raj said aspirants were meeting him and Uddhav, but the final decision was always taken by Sena supremo.

Raj's desperate attempt to play down the rift notwithstanding, there is a general sense of gloom in the party and the alliance: ``We are shocked at the open quarrel between Raj and Uddhav. We will have to pay a heavy price in the ensuing elections to the Lok Sabha and assembly,'' said a senior BJP Minister.

But according to a senior Shiv Sena leader, for all the three regional conventions, specific invitations were sent to Raj. While Minister of state for Home Ramdas Kadam had personally visited Raj to invite him to Kolhapur, Minister for Forest and Environment Chandrakant Khaire had called on him to invite him for the Aurangabad convention.