Nitin Gadkari welcomes MNS support to Narendra Modi

MUMBAI: Senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari today welcomed MNS support to Narendra Modi and urged its leader Raj Thackeray to extend support to other NDA parties including Shiv Sena.

"We are grateful to what Raj Thackeray said but there is an alliance of BJP-Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. We have a strong alliance, RPI, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana... all of us will fight the election together. We will support each other. I request Raj Thackeray to think about giving support to other NDA contenders as well," Gadkari said.

The Shiv Sena and MNS, though led by cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, are rivals in Maharashtra.

Earlier, in a political move aimed at queering the pitch for its arch rival Shiv Sena, MNS declared its support to the BJP's prime ministerial candidate while fielding its candidates for Lok Sabha polls mainly from those seats which are contested by Sena, virtually sparing BJP.