He is known for his controversial statements and he rarely disappoints. As he faced the media on his 82nd birthday on Wednesday, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray didn't train his guns on the traditional punching bag - the Congress or the NCP. Instead, he focussed on his own alliance partner.

''Only the Shiv Sena pattern will work in Maharashtra,'' said Bal Thackeray in response to the question of whether the Modi pattern will work in Maharashtra.

No Modi, no Mayawati, Maharashtra will follow only the Sena pattern, a clear indication that Thackeray has already set his sights on the next election even as the BJP played down the comment.

''They are the bigger alliance partner in the state and we are with them,'' said Gopinath Munde, BJP General Secretary.

Political analysts say that all may not well in the saffron alliance, where the Sena contested 40 seats in Gujarat and spoilt three seats for the BJP in the recent Gujarat elections. Even so these internal differences have been surfacing time and again.

To observers of the Shiv Sena, this statement is not new. But traditionally Bal Thackeray has always been projected as the ultimate Hindu leader, now if people have started calling Modi the same, Bal Thackeray will certainly not take kindly to that.

This is the second time in a week that the Sena supremo used strong words for his own alliance partner. And the Modi wave may have worked in Gujarat, but with Assembly elections round the corner in Maharashtra, the Sena wants to remind the BJP who the big brother is in the state.