Mumbai:
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is furious with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari, once his blue-eyed boy. And this time it has to do with Gadkari singing a new tune on the Ram Mandir issue, one that's very different from the Sena's take.
The BJP President, Nitin Gadkari has said, "I appeal to the minority community of the society to give jus that piece of land for Ram Mandir. If there is space near it then we will lend our complete support for the creation of a grand masjid."
But the BJP's ally, the Shiv Sena isn't amused, as this editorial in the Sena mouthpiece makes it clear.
Bal Thackeray, in an editorial in Sena mouthpiece, writes, "Ayodhya belongs to Ram and we do not need land records from the government to prove this. Hence the Ram Mandir will come up in Ayodhya itself and asking the Muslims permission for this is an insult to the thousands of kar sevaks who have sacrificed themselves in the campaign."
So it is yet another instance of the growing rift between the allies. It comes soon after the BJP and the RSS snubbed the Sena's hard stance against Shah Rukh Khan and on the migrants issue.
But for now, the BJP is trying to play down Thackeray senior's scathing remarks.
"We are two different parties, we have different ideologies," says Ravishankar Prasad, BJP Spokesperson.
But it's not the Shiv Sena alone that's upset with Gadkari.
Counsel for the Babri masjid Action Committee Zafar Yab Gilani said, "Gadkari's offer is an insult to Muslims. He shouldn't be using such words. What does he mean, we can't make our own mosque?"
Gadkari wants a new look BJP, different from the divided house he took over. But clearly he has a tough job at hand, convincing his partymen and allies.