This is the first time a meeting of this sort has been held outside Matoshree, the Thackeray home in Mumbai. Uddhav, according to sources, shares a personal rapport with Advani. On Tuesday, Kamla Advani offered him special Sindhi vegetarian food in consonance with his weekly fast. The BJP conceded Uddhav’s demand that Munde and Gadkari address a joint press conference with him at Joshi’s residence to publicly end the spat between them.

Uddhav did not commit himself to either Vajpayee or Advani as the Sena choice for prime ministership. “When election comes, anyone who is chosen, Atalji hain to Atalji, Advaniji hain to Advaniji, the NDA leader would be our choice,” he said. “However, the saffron flag would fly over Delhi,” he declared.

He disagreed when told that they had been reunited due to the reopening of the Srikrishna Commission report. “Ours is an alliance for Hindutva,” he said, admitting that the Srikrishna Commission report was a serious issue. About the nuclear deal, he said the Sena had not taken a position yet.

Earlier, Uddhav led a delegation of party MPs to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to submit a memorandum against the Sachar Committee report. “The Prime Minister has promised to keep our views in mind while implementing the report,” Uddhav claimed. The memorandum warned the Prime Minister against “another partition” if the report was implemented.