When Bal Thackeray used a book-release function at his home today to declare that a Shiv Sena alliance with NCP could work wonders for Maharashtra, he was not just reiterating an old view. Timed as it was with NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s statement of being open to tie-ups with any party and days after the NCP joined hands with the Sena to keep out the Congress in the Pune municipal corporation, Thackeray was outlining future possibilities.

“Pawar is an old friend and I have been saying that if the two parties come together, we can do a lot in the state... it will be in the interest of Maharashtra’s development,” Thackeray said. “We have an alliance with the BJP, but I don’t think there is any need to consult them (the BJP). I am open for an alignment with the NCP.”

Thackeray has in the past made overtures to the NCP. In 2005, at the release of his photo-biography edited by nephew Raj Thackeray, he had publicly asked Pawar to join hands with the Sena for the welfare of the state. Pawar, who was present at the function, had rejected the offer. Later, in 2006, Thackeray had written an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece, Saamna, advocating the need for the Sena and the NCP to join hands.

What adds significance to Thackeray’s remarks now is that they come three days after Pawar’s statement at Baramati that “I am open for alliance with any party, including the Shiv Sena.” Pawar’s overtures towards the Sena came after the formalisation of an alliance between the two in the Pune municipal corporation.

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