Mumbai (NDTV): In a new attack on ally BJP, the Shiv Sena has accused it of offering rival party Congress a fresh lease of life with the Modi government's handling of the terror attack in Pathankot, Punjab.

"After the attack in Pathankot those whom we had buried are back from the dead...our soldiers attained martyrdom but the situation after the attack was chaotic, which has revived the Congress and this is not good," said an editorial in Sena mouthpiece, the Saamna, this morning.

The BJP, the Sena has alleged, is making the same mistakes that the Congress-led UPA did when in power and says it holds it ally responsible for the Congress' revival.

"The credit for repeatedly rejuvenating a stroke-hit and dead Congress is unfortunately that of those who hunted it down. Flowers of promises are offered to the people and are then crushed even before they are realised," says the editorial.

A "people's audit," said the Sena, is critical. It lamented what it called a weakening of the BJP's position on issues like the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the demand for a Uniform Civil Code, Hindutva, corruption and Pakistan, and warned that the Congress has been known to revive when it appears vanquished, as it did after the Emergency.

"It had seemed the Janata Dal had devoured the Congress. But because of internal disputes and fights, Congress returned to power within 22 months. This was a betrayal of the people's trust. And some in Delhi are still troubled by this betrayal. Each time, those who vanquish the Congress, revive it by giving it the (magical herb) Sanjivani of misgovernance and chaos," the Saamna said.

The Shiv Sena, the BJP's oldest ally, has been consistently critical of the ruling party despite sharing power both at the Centre and in Maharashtra. Pushed to being the smaller partner after state elections in 2014, the Sena has been particularly aggressive in the run-up to the crucial 2017 elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the richest civic body in India.

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