Janta Party leader Subramaniam Swamy on Monday met Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thack-eray. He was at Matoshree for around one hour and 15 minutes. While there was no official statement from Shiv Sena, Mr Swamy told mediapersons that the two discussed about the prevailing political situation in the country and NDA’s prime ministerial candidate.
“We had an hour-long meeting where wide range of issues regarding the current political affairs were discussed. We agreed that the NDA strategy and approach for the next Lok Sabha elections should be fighting corruption, promoting development and adopting Hindutva,” Mr Swamy said.
The Janata Party leader said he has had a long association with the Thackerays since he was elected twice to the Lok Sabha from Mumbai.
“Another topic of discussion was the issue of NDA’s prime ministerial candidate. It should be discussed in a meeting with all allies,” he said.
When asked about Shiv Sena’s criticism of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in an editorial which appeared in party mouthpiece Saamana last week, Mr Swamy said the editorial basically spoke of the need for the prime ministerial candidate to be upholding Hindutva also, rather than just development.
On Bihar CM Nitish Kumar attacking his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi over the secular principle, Mr Swamy said that Mr Kumar should be assured that “a true Hindu will always be a secular person”. Mr Kumar had recently opposed Mr Modi’s name for the top post claiming that NDA’s PM candidate should have a secular face.
According to him, Hindus are naturally secular people because they believe that all religions lead to God. “Hindus do not need that as an additional qualification,” he said. The chief of Janata Party, an ally of the BJP-led NDA, said he would apprise senior BJP leader L.K. Advani about his meeting with Mr Thackeray.