Time to think of 'grand alliance' of regional parties: Uddhav Thackeray

A day after declaring that the Maharashtra government had been put on a "notice period", Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said that it is time to think of a "grand alliance" of regional parties as a formidable combination to take on national parties.

"There have been many friends of BJP like Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee and (late) Jayalalithaa, who had in the past opted out of the NDA, fought elections on their own and won. But we (Shiv Sena) were innocent. Hoping for good days and for the sake of the Hindutva we stayed put (in the alliance)," he told reporters.

Thackeray escalated his aggressive stand saying he is open to withdrawing support to the state ministry if the senior partner (BJP) failed to clear its stand on issues his party had raised time and again.

"We are not an enemy of BJP and it is unfortunate that we are seen as their opposition. We are open to withdrawing support to the government if they do not make clear their stand on various issues in the coming days," he said. Read more