“A party chief is talking and writing like a street thug. Is this politics? Can this go on? We did not want them to leave us, but if they want to, they must decide soon”

Shiv Sena representative Anant Geete’s continuance in the Union Council of Ministers has become “unsustainable” after the diatribes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Saamna, the Sena mouthpiece, over the last two days, highly placed BJP sources said. Mr Geete holds the Heavy Industries portfolio.

“A party chief is talking and writing like a street thug. Is this politics? Can this go on? We did not want them to leave us, but if they want to, they must decide soon,” the source who did not want to be named, told The Hindu.

The BJP leader said even during seat-sharing negotiations, Sena leaders used “inappropriate and threatening language.” Mr. Uddhav Thackeray’s editorial in Saamna on Tuesday had said “even Modi’s father” could not win Maharashtra for the BJP.

On Wednesday, Saamna said if a tea boy could become the Prime Minister why could not a Thackeray become the Chief Minister.