Sena assures support to Pranab

Key National Democratic Alliance ally Shiv Sena was tonight understood to have assured UPA Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee its support.

The assurance was given when Mukherjee called up the Sena chief Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav Thackeray, the party executive president, Sena sources said.

The party sources replied in the affirmative when contacted on whether their party leaders have assured support to Mukherjee.

Earlier, there were indications that Bharatiya Janata Party was pushing its allies Janata Dal-United and Shiv Sena to agree on supporting former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma and give up plans for a consensus on Mukherjee.

Sena is the oldest ideological ally of the BJP and it had supported Pratibha Patil in 2007, breaking ranks with BJP as Patil hailed from Maharashtra. The BJP and the NDA leaders had then backed late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for the presidential post.