New Delhi, (The Telegraph): The BJP's central brass has decided to stay mum on ally Shiv Sena's shenanigans till the Bihar elections are done with.

"What do you want us to say? The Maharashtra chief minister is ably handling the whole thing," a spokesperson said off the record.

The allusion was possibly to the police cover for Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's Monday-evening book launch and the arrest of six men in connection with the black-paint attack on former L.K. Advani aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, who organised the event.

If the Sena "at all heeded" someone in the BJP, the spokesperson added, it was chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The comment came a day after the Sena decided it would not ally with the BJP for municipal elections, due next month, in Kalyan-Dombivli, a crucial satellite town near Mumbai.

BJP sources in both Delhi and Maharashtra claimed that chief minister Fadnavis had emerged as a "fairly effective" troubleshooter with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena.

"He and Uddhav are on good terms," said a Maharashtra Rajya Sabha MP.

Nobody in the central BJP shares a rapport with either Uddhav or his son, Aditya Thackeray. Not even Union minister Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra's most senior representative in Narendra Modi's cabinet.

On his part, Modi has not made any effort to reach out to Uddhav, while BJP chief Amit Shah apparently "alienated" the Sena when he decided his party would go solo in the last Assembly elections.

Now with the Bihar polls preoccupying Modi and the BJP, sources said Maharashtra was the "last thing" on their minds.

Sources said the BJP's reading was that a tipping moment in the unstable equation with the Sena was "unlikely" to come before the Brihanmumbai municipal elections, due in February 2017.

Going solo

Having decided to contest the Kalyan-Dombivli (KDMC) local body polls separately, BJP sources said the prospect of a reunion for the Mumbai municipal election was "remote, as good as no".

The Sena has been controlling the Mumbai civic body - said to be the country's most cash-rich municipality - for the past 18 years with the BJP in tow as a junior partner. "We want this status to remain unchallenged," a Sena source stressed.

The source said the move to fight the Kalyan-Dombivli polls independently was a "way of proving who was stronger, us or the BJP, on the ground".

Kalyan-Dombivli is one of the few pockets in Maharashtra where the RSS is strong but BJP sources said it has not always been "loyal" to the BJP. "Its preferences swing towards the Sena or the MNS if it thinks we have compromised on the Hindutva issue," a BJP Lok Sabha MP acknowledged.

The MP added that Fadnavis's call to play by the rule book in safeguarding former Pakistan diplomat Kasuri's visit to Mumbai might not have been to the Sangh's liking.

Sena Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut said the way the Maharashtra government welcomed Kasuri was "unimaginable".

"All the cops in Mumbai were on duty to see he was safe. All this for someone who spoke out so often against India? We are nationalists and Hindutvawaadis and we don't care about the image we are projecting," Raut said.

Raut today slammed Fadnavis for his "pro-Pakistan" act.

"The CM says that the Shiv Sena's protest brought disrepute to Maharashtra.... In fact, the CM's pro-Pakistan act has brought disrepute to Maharashtra.... By providing security for Kasuri he has disrespected our martyred jawans," Raut said, while announcing that his party would have no truck with the BJP in the KDMC polls.

A Sena leader said it was a "considered decision".

Sena sources said the party might also go it alone in the Brihanmumbai municipal elections. "Not just that, Uddhav sahib may call back his ministers in the Maharashtra cabinet soon," a Sena source said.

Tea party

Earlier in the day, in a show of defiance, Uddhav invited the six Sena men - arrested yesterday for attacking Kulkarni and released on bail today - to his home for tea.

"Uddhavji spent 10 minutes speaking to them. He told them: 'Well done, Balasaheb (Thackeray) would be proud of you'," said a Sena leader who was present at the get-together at Matoshree, the Thackeray family residence.

Photo credit: The Telegraph