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Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray did a volte face all over again on Saturday maintaining that he stood by his earlier demand for a clean-up of the Prime Minister's Office.
This comes just days after he disowned an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna wherein a demand for the sacking of PM's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra and N K Singh, Officer on Special Duty in PMO, was made in the wake of the tehelka.com expose on corruption in defence deals.
In an interview to be published in Saamna on Sunday, Thackeray has said: "I feel the prime minister must do something about N K Singh, Brajesh Mishra and Ranjan Bhattacharya (the prime minister's foster son-in-law). However, care must be taken to ensure that the government's stability does not suffer a blow."
Thackeray said he did disagree with the Saamna editorial, but his disagreement was restricted to its timing and not the content.
"I felt that it would not be right to attack the prime minister when he is facing the biggest crisis of his political career. However, if Mishra, Singh and Bhattacharya have brought disrepute to the PMO, they must go," Thackeray said.
"Though I haven't met the prime minister, party MPs in Delhi - Union Industries Minister Manohar Joshi, Union Power Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Finance Balasaheb Vikhe Patil - have conveyed my feelings to Vajpayee," he added.
The Shiv Sena has 15 MPs in the Lok Sabha and is an important constituent of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, which is under considerable pressure after the exit of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress.
After this interview appears in Saamna on Sunday, the prime minister will come under renewed pressure to sack Mishra and Singh.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which wields considerable influence on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, has already made it clear that Mishra and Singh's exit from the PMO is the only way the government can redeem its reputation.
ALSO SEE Thackeray joins campaign against PMO
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