Mumbai/ New Dehi, Aug. 24: The Indo-US nuclear deal has brought the BJP and the Shiv Sena to the threshold of a fresh standoff, weeks after the rift between the allies over the President’s election.

Although the Sena leadership has not made its stand on the deal public, party mouthpiece Saamna has been unequivocal in its support.

“Everyone should be supporting the deal. It is in India’s interest,” Saamna wrote.

Sena MPs, with the exception of Manohar Joshi, also missed a crucial meeting in Delhi this week to discuss the NDA’s strategy on the deal and did not join the BJP-led walkout in Parliament yesterday.

BJP spokesperson V.K. Malhotra said: “They were with us all along; Manohar Joshi attended all the NDA meetings on the nuclear deal. We don’t know what went wrong at this late stage.”

Joshi said he had received no directive from Bal Thackeray to change the party’s stand. “We were with the BJP on this issue and our leader was opposed to the deal. I am going to Mumbai tomorrow to find out if there is a change of mind.”

Asked why Sena MPs did not join the walkout, he told The Telegraph: “That may be because of strained relations. Anant Geethe, leader in the Lok Sabha, told me he was trying to put pressure on the BJP to settle the alliance issue at the earliest. That had nothing to do with the nuclear issue.”

Relations between the allies have been strained since the Sena voted for Pratibha Patil in the President’s election.

“First, the Sena supported a UPA presidential candidate instead of the NDA’s. Then they said Sharad Pawar would make a good Prime Minister. Now they seem to be supporting Vilasrao Deshmukh…. We are fed up. We are seeking a new alignment,” a senior BJP leader said in Mumbai, pointing to “daily insults” hurled at party leaders in Saamna.

“We have told the central leadership that we do not wish to continue the alliance, and we can fight the 2009 elections on our own. But they feel that the NDA should not lose a constituent at this juncture when the UPA-Left alliance seems to be cracking,” another BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.

Compelled to toe the central line, the state BJP unit met recently to discuss the future of the alliance, but remained vague about its plans.

But on August 13, the Sena rank and file expressed their resolve to go it alone in the forthcoming elections. At a meeting at Sena Bhavan to review party work, all the district chiefs said they did not want the alliance to continue.

“District chiefs asked Ramdas Kadam (who was presiding over the meeting) to convey to Balasaheb they will not tolerate BJP’s talk of betrayal and criticism of the Thackerays. They said they would prefer to go alone,” a senior functionary said.

Reacting to the developments, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said: “We are hopeful of ironing out things.”