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Delhi stalled Sena's plan to
topple Maharashtra govt

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

The Shiv Sena's boycott of Wednesday's coordination committee meeting of the National Democratic Alliance, it turns out, had nothing to do with the Unit Trust of India crisis.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday surprised everyone by saying that he instructed Union Minister for Power Suresh Prabhu to stay away from the coordination committee after a move to topple the Congress-led Democratic Front in Maharashtra was sabotaged by the Centre.

"I don't want to name who did it. But, I was upset by the fact that the orders came from New Delhi. And that was the reason why I asked Sena leaders to boycott the NDA meeting," Thackeray told reporters at a press conference he jointly addressed with NDA convenor George Fernandes in Bombay late on Wednesday.

If Fernandes, who was flown in from Delhi to placate Thackeray, was embarrassed by the disclosure, he did not let it show. The former defence minister circumvented all questions about differences within the NDA, harping instead on his 50-year-long association with Thackeray.

All this while it was being believed that the Sena chief was upset with the way the government -- especially the prime minister's office -- had handled the UTI crisis.

Although Thackeray had dissociated himself from Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam's anti-PMO, anti-finance minister blitzkrieg in Parliament, he had made no secret of his displeasure with the PMO's functioning.

Thackeray refused to elaborate on how his party had proposed to dislodge the DF government. All he said was that there was a "man" in New Delhi who stalled the move.

The Sena chief, however, made it clear that there was no question of his party withdrawing support to the Vajpayee government.

"The country is going through a crisis. I wonder what will happen if there isn't a stable government at the Centre," he said.

Asked if he had directed Sanjay Nirupam to apologise to the prime minister, Thackeray said: "I have told him that Vajpayeeji is a very senior person and I respect him very much. However, I must add that Nirupam was targeting PMO officials and not the prime minister."

When a reporter asked if all this hue and cry over UTI was just a tool to pressure Vajpayee to concede another Cabinet berth to the Sena, Thackeray said his party was satisfied with its representation in the government.

"What we have been demanding is reallocation of portfolios. Our demand was ignored when the prime minister reshuffled his team recently," he said.

Fernandes's meeting with Thackeray lasted more than an hour and they were joined in discussions by former chief minister Narayan Rane, and two senior Sena leaders Uddhav and Raj Thackeray.

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