Associates-turned-foes — the BJP and the Sri Rama Sene — are at loggerheads, with the former accusing Sene chief Pramod Mutalik of using the name of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to raise funds to strengthen his organisation.
The Sene was quick to dismiss the allegation as being made with an intention to malign its chief ahead of parliamentary elections. “The allegations are false,” Mutalik said on the concluding day of the Karnataka Hindu convention here on Sunday.
He dared BJP leaders to produce proof to substantiate their claim.
Hubli-Dharwad City District BJP President Lingaraj Patil had on Saturday said stickers carrying photographs of both Modi and Mutalik with the slogan ‘Modi for the nation and Mutalik for the state’ were being distributed among public and `100 was being collected for each sticker.
This political battle between the BJP and the Sene is being seen as a fallout of Mutalik’s intention to take on state BJP president Prahlad Joshi in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Dharwad constituency.