KOLHAPUR, Jan 18: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today asserted that the Sena-BJP combine will not tolerate Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister.``We have full sympathy for her. We respect her. But since she is a foreign national she has absolutely no right to interfere in the internal matters of India,'' he said, while kicking off the combine's election campaign at the Gandhi Maidan here.
He also accused her of pandering to the interests of the Christian community despite her claims of being secular. Thackeray said he was shocked to see ``impotent Congressmen taking Sonia's help to save a sinking ship''.
Thackeray also reiterated his earlier call for the construction of a national monument at Ayodhya.
On his maiden visit to the sugar-rich Congress citadel Thackeray managed to secure the defection of two Congress stalwarts. Former Congress MP Hind Kesri Maruti Mane and Nivedita Mane joined the Sena today. Incidentally, Nivedita's name had been unanimously recommended by the Pradesh Congress Committee for
the Ichalkaranji parliamentary seat. But, the All India Congress Committee re-nominated sitting MP Kalpana Avade.
In the last elections, Nivedita had contested unsuccessfully as an independent. ``I had a prolonged meeting with Thackeray and the Chief Minister today. They agreed to nominate me from Ichalkaranji on the condition that I will contest as a Shiv Sena nominee,'' Nivedita told The Indian Express.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
