Mumbai, Jan 29 (DC): Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has indicated that his party is willing to forge an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) if there is a “respectable proposal” from its ally.

Mr Thackeray had called upon a meeting of its party MPs at his residence, Matoshree, in Mumbai to gauge their mood on alliance talks.

According to party sources, the Sena chief was favourable towards forming an alliance, but not at the cost of self-respect. “The BJP has expressed its willingness to form an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. However, there is no concrete proposal from it so far. If the BJP is ready to forge an alliance by respecting the self-esteem of the party, then we are ready for it,” he said in the meeting.

During the meeting, several MPs expressed the fear that the election would be a difficult one if the party did not form an alliance with the BJP.

Replying to them, the party chief claimed that it would be very difficult to convince Shiv Sainiks about the alliance as they have been hurt by the BJP’s “dominating attitude”.

However, after the meeting, the Sena MP Sanjay Raut sang a different tune before the media, saying Sena is the “big brother” and would remain so.

Talking on reports of the BJP and Shiv Sena fighting an equal number of seats, Mr Raut said, “We have no information about it. We don’t have any such proposal. We reiterate that Shiv Sena will play the role of a big brother and will remain the big brother.”

“In the meeting, we discussed the Rafale deal and the drought in the state. On the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Sections quota to General Category, Uddhavji said people with annual income of `8 lakh must be exempted from paying income tax. Since you have labelled them poor, they must be exempted,” said Mr Raut.