The alliance between the BJP and the Shiv Sena has always been cold and on the edge. Now the Sena has takena leaf out of Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s attack on prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a jibe at the Prime Minister

It may be re- called that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been repeatedly hurling the chowkidar chor hai jibe at Modi to claim irregularities and favouritism in the Rafale deal and award of offset contracts related to the Rs 58,000-crore defence agreement with France. However, the government has rejected the charges.

Addressing a rally in Pandharpur in Maharashtra’s Solapur district, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray used the slogan in a different context while narrating an incident.

Thackeray said, “In one of the state tours, a farmer showed me a pest-infested lime tree. The lime tree is actually used to make pesticides but this was a plant that was infested with pest.

“The farmer told me that for the first time in his lifetime, he had seen a lime tree getting infested, which they have been using to make pesticides. I had told him that now, days have changed. Security persons have become thieves.”

“Halli paharekarich chorya karaylaa laagale aahet. (Today, security persons have themselves become thieves),” he said in Marathi.

Paharekari is a Marathi equivalent of the Hindi word chowkidar.

Thackeray, whose outfit is part of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and also in Maharashtra, did not take any names, but the significance of his comments was not lost on anyone.

Thackeray and his party have been often criticising the BJP and its top leaders, including Modi, on a range of issues. However, this was perhaps for the first time a BJP ally has publicly made the chowkidar chor hai taunt.