The Shiv Sena, which has caused a flutter in the Bharatiya Janata Party by deciding to back United Progressive Alliance presidential nominee Pratibha Patil, is not in a hurry to decide its stand on the vice-presidential poll.
"We will decide our stand after (the presidential poll on) July 19," party spokesman and Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut told PTI in the backdrop of the strain in the Sena's ties with the BJP following its decision to back Pratibha.
Rejecting BJP's suggestion to reconsider its support to Pratibha, he said: "The support to Pratibha is because she is a Maharashtrian and not because she belongs to the Congress."
The Sena, he said, has "not done any bargaining" while extending support to Pratibha.
With the BJP threatening to review ties with the Sena after the presidential election, Raut said his party still considers itself a "humble and loyal" constituent of the National Democratic Alliance and suggested that no one should play politics with it.
"There has been no let-up in our opposition to the Congress, which is our number one political opponent," he said adding, the Sena is still a critic of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin.
The Shiv Sena still considers the BJP its "friend and ally" and matters have not changed in spite of its move to back Pratibha instead of NDA-backed independent candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Raut said.
To a question on the party's stand in the vice-presidential election, Raut said Bal Thackarey and executive president Udhav Thackeray will make a decision after July 19.
"Since it is being said (by the BJP) that there will be a review of their ties with us (Shiv Sena) after July 19, we will also take a decision after July 19," he said adding, several non-BJP leaders in the NDA have been in touch with Thackeray.
Noting that the Sena's plank is "Marathi in Maharashtra and Hindutva in the country", he suggested that its decision on the presidential election was in keeping with this plank.
Dubbing the strain in the ties between the Sena and the BJP as a "storm in a teacup", Raut felt there could be resentment in the saffron party over the move to back Pratibha, but there should not be any misunderstanding.
The Shiv Sena's move came as a shock to the BJP, whose senior leaders, including Lal Kishenchand Advani, have spoken of a "review" of the ties with the party led by Bal Thackeray after the presidenital election.
The Shiv Sena is the oldest ideological ally of the BJP and the two parties shared power in Maharashtra after winning the 1995 Assembly election.
