Seven months after its late chief Bal Thackeray named senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj as his choice for prime ministerial candidate, the Shiv Sena indicated here on Thursday that it was keeping open its option of supporting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the NDA’s prime ministerial nomination.
Talking to mediapersons after inaugurating a web site www.ranvata.in on wildlife and environment, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray hinted that his party was not averse to re-considering the stand taken by his father a week after Swaraj had called on the latter at Thackerays’ Bandra residence “Matoshri” in September last year.
“Yes. It is true that when Swaraj came to meet Balasaheb last year, he blessed her and told her that he wanted her to become the next Prime Minister. At that time, Narendrabhai was all set to launch his campaign for the Gujarat Assembly polls. From the situation that existed then, it is very clear that his name was not being debated (for the prime ministerial nomination),” Uddhav said.
Asked whether the Sena supported Modi’s nomination for the Prime Minister’s post, Uddhav said: “let Modi’s name be formally announced, then we will talk. I am a part of the NDA coalition. I do not want to comment on ifs and buts. It is not the question of my supporting him or not. The question is why I should reveal my strategy”.
Uddhav said it was for the NDA to call a meeting of its constituents to decide on its Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 polls, “let me make it clear that if it wants to discuss the issue, then it should call a meeting of all its constituents”.
Uddhav’s readiness to re-consider Balasaheb’s stand on Swaraj vis-à-vis should be seen in the context of the late Sena chief’s remarks about the current leader of the Opposition in lok Sabha published in the third part of his last-ever interview carried by the party’s official mouth-piece on September 9,2012.
Apart from naming Swaraj as his choice for the NDA’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Balasaheb had in that interview heaped praised on her, saying that she was “intelligent”, “brilliant” and the only “deserving” person in the BJP who could do great job as a PM.
“I have said many times over that there is only one person (in the BJP) who is intelligent and brilliant that is Sushma Swaraj. She is a great choice for the Prime Minister’s post. She is a deserving person. An intelligent woman. She will do a great job. This is my unambiguous opinion,” Balasaheb had said.
Uddhav’s statement should also be seen in another context: of the proximity between his MNS chief-cousin Raj Thackeray and Modi. So impressed was Raj was with development work he saw in Modi’s land during his visit to the neighbouring state last year that he has never tired since then 0f heaping on the BJP leader’s governance initiatives in Gujarat.
Both Raj and Uddhav were among the VVIP political guests on the dais at Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in Ahmedabad on December 26, 2012. On his part, Raj has ruled out the possibility of MNS contesting the forthcoming lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra in alliance with the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI (A) combine.
The third context in which the Sena president's statement should be viewed is the fact that Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met Uddhav at his Bandra residence, during a visit to Mumbai on April 1. The meeting came in the wake of the induction of Modi into the BJP’s Parliamentary Board.