Advani to meet Thackeray today

Advani to meet Thackeray today
PRAFULLA MARPAKWAR

NAGPUR, DECEMBER 17: After keeping the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray waiting for several days for an audience with the Prime Minister, BJP is now sending Home Minister Advani to Mumbai for preliminary talks with Sena chief on Saturday.

According to an earlier plan, Thackeray was scheduled to meet Vajpayee in New Delhi late this month or early next month. ``The meeting has been rescheduled. Now, Advani will have a preliminary meeting with Thackeray. Subsequently, the Sena chief will meet the Prime Minister,'' a senior Shiv Sena leader said.

Thackeray has been unhappy with the BJP ever since the saffron alliance failed to form government in the State. ``We feel that since the BJP did not take interest in the process, the alliance was unable to form the government,'' the Sena leader remarked.

The BJP's reluctance to toe the Sena line on government formation and the resulting delay had given Congress enough time to successfully negotiate for support with the Nationalist Congress Party and other smallerparties.

Moreover, Thackeray is keen on meeting Vajpayee since he plans to have a direct rapport with the Prime Minister. Till now, in all the parleys between the partners, the BJP was represented by senior leaders Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde while Thackeray negotiated for Sena.

Thackeray's meetings with Advani and later with Vajpayee are significant in that the Sena leader is expected to seek full support from the State BJP unit in his effort to topple the Democratic Front government.

The alliance partners seem to differ on the issue of toppling the state government. During his whirlwind tour of the Konkan region, Thackeray had declared that the front government will collapse soon however, Mahajan and Munde have been stressing that the BJP was not interested in toppling game.