New Delhi: One of the important allies of the National Democratic Alliance the Shiv Sena has boycotted the no-confidence motion against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government in the Lok Sabha, after a series of flip-flops. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray conveyed his decision to his party’s 18 members of Parliament just half an hour before the proceedings of the Lok Sabha began.

“Our party chief has decided we will not be present in the proceedings today,” Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire said.

“We have many things to say about the functioning of the government, but whatever we want to say we will convey at an appropriate time,” senior Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut added.

The Sena, the BJP’s oldest ally and most vocal critic, on Thursday withdrew a whip to its lawmakers to vote in favour of the government just hours after promising support.

The regional party also accused the BJP of using its allies only when it needed them in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

“The no-confidence motion is not to dissolve the government, but to make it stand like an accused in a cage and peal its skin,” Sena said in the editorial.

The Sena listed out several issues where the BJP failed to keep the interests of the common man in mind.

“We became the fifth largest economy in the world. Okay, but the fifth largest economy has not rescued our farmers from the door of death,” it said.

However, it said that the BJP will defeat the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha as it has the numbers.