Thackeray's silence coupled with the former minister's claims that he had filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate only after getting the green signal from Sena leader Raj Thackeray, seem to indicate that the party could be in favour of Gholap winning the Devlali Assembly seat.

Hence, while the Sena did not officially support Gholap's independent candidature, he wasn't expelled from the party, prompting Sainiks to canvass for him.

At the well-attended rally, Thackeray did not say anything about the blunder in the Devlali constituency and whether theywere contemplating punitive action aganist Gholap, or if the Sena had some secret pact with him.

Meanwhile, Gholap who had arrived at the rally with his supporters, remained backstage while his supporters shouted slogans in his favour. After the rally, Thackeray and Gholap had a late night meeting, the details of which were not divulged to the press. Thackeray also maintained a conspicuous silence on his party's stand on support to Gholap's candidature from Devlali.

At the rally, Thackeray chose to make fun of Congress president Sonia Gandhi by imitating her accent while speaking Hindi. He said that a person who could not even sing the national anthem or the names of national leaders like Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar properly and depended on speeches written by others, could not become the prime minister of the country.

Thackeray claimed that Sonia had illtreated her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and was now taking advantage of the situation by mentioning the sacrifices made by Indira Gandhi. He said that Soniahad taken away her husband Rajiv for a holiday in Cecily when the country was at war in 1971.

Thackeray felt that Sonia and Pawar had no right to criticise the Vajpayee government for intelligence failure and loss of lives of army personnel. He said that the Congress should first give an account of the loss of lives in the Bangladesh war and in peace keeping efforts in Sri Lanka. He said that on these occasions, the jawans were not fighting for their own country but for a foreign country at the behest of the then prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, respectively. He said that in Kargil, the army was fighting for its own country and the loss of lives was much less.

He further said that the critics also did not have the right to accuse the Vajpayee government of intelligence failure, pointing out that the then Congress governments in Maharashtra were not able to anticipate communal riots of 1992 and bomb blasts in 1993.

`We haven't pardoned him'

NASHIK: Reacting to Gholap's meetingwith Sena chief Bal Thackeray at Niphad, party spokesman Subhas Desai, today clarified that the party chief had not pardoned Gholap.

In a statement issued today, Desai said that he was present when Gholap met Thackeray. According to him, Gholap told Thackeray that he had been acquitted by the Mumbai High Court. ``Thackeray said that he will see, after reading the court order tomorrow '' Desai stated. Desai further clarified that Thackeray neither spoke about any covert support for Gholap in Devlali not did he ask Gholap to carry on his work. Desai reiterated, that the party did not support Gholap's independent candidature from Devlali.