New Delhi, Feb. 11: L.K. Advani today broke his silence on the campaign against north Indians in Maharashtra, saying it was against the spirit of the Constitution.

“Whatever is happening in Maharashtra is unacceptable. Our Constitution doesn’t allow this. This is against national unity. Whichever party is doing this is unacceptable,” the leader of the Opposition said.

Speaking after releasing a book on Deen Dayal Upadhyay to mark the Jan Sangh stalwart’s 40th death anniversary, Advani said the BJP would never appreciate such parochialism. He did not name ally Shiv Sena or Raj Thackeray.

The shadow Prime Minister’s words are the strongest denunciation yet of the campaign by a BJP leader. The party has been critical of the violence in Maharashtra but its response has been subdued in comparison with its outrage at the attacks on Hindi-speaking migrants in Assam.

The leadership knows the situation in Maharashtra is different, perhaps graver, given that the campaign has been unleashed by a registered political party. Similar efforts in Assam, Punjab and Kashmir had been launched by banned outfits.

After Raj triggered the current crisis, Shiv Sena working president Uddhav Thackeray, worried that his cousin would hijack his party’s old plank, has been pushing the son-of-the-soil agenda again.

The Sena’s pro-Maharashtrian stance had strained its ties with the BJP last year. Bal Thackeray’s party had broken ranks with the BJP-led Opposition to vote for Maharashtrian Pratibha Patil instead of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the presidential poll.

Advani has worked hard to repair the ties but last week’s events have put the BJP in a bind again. The party can’t adopt the Sena’s narrow line since its politics is rooted in the heartland and the party sees itself as the alternative to the Congress at the Centre.

Advani stressed the anti-parochial line today, recalling how Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee lost his life defying the permit system for entering Kashmir. A party that draws its ideology from him cannot believe in such regionalism, he said.