Mumbai: The row over the sacking of 850 Jet Airways employees took a political turn on Wednesday, soon after the airline announced its decision. The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena-affiliated Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS) tried to score over each other by backing the employees. While the MNS threatened to ground Jet flights, the BKS claimed that the airline was ready to reinstate the employees.

More than 200 employees met Raj Thackeray at MNS headquarters in Dadar soon after they came to know that Jet Airways had terminated their services. "We will not allow Jet Airways flights to take off from Mumbai till all the employees are reinstated," Raj announced after the meeting.

The MNS declared that its delegation will meet Jet officials on Thursday and negotiate with them for reinstating the employees.

After this, it was BKS president Suryakant Mahadiks turn to make his move. He held a meeting with Jet officials and emerged as a winner. He claimed that the airline has accepted to reinstate the employees. The BKS is the only recognised union in Jet Airways.

Mahadik told DNA, "We held a meeting with the Jet management for more than three hours. We reminded them that the sacked employees were appointed after our efforts. The Jet officials told us that they had to sack the 850 employees in the wake of the recent recession in the industry. At the same time, they gave us a letter stating that all the employees would be reinstated."

"If Jet does not follow its assurance, we will agitate in our style. There are a few people who claim to be caretakers of the employees, but people know who their real caretakers are," he said, in a taunt aimed at Raj Thackeray, without taking his name.

Sources said that initially, the BKS was not aggressive on the issue. But after the sacked staff met Raj, it came into action. "A few days ago, some officials of the Sena-affiliated Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti, working with the Western Railway, were transferred out of Maharashtra. The officials approached their superiors in the organisation for getting the transfers cancelled, but they refused to pay attention. Finally, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray intervened and took pot-shots at the superiors. The party did not want the same thing happening in the Jet case," said a source.

However, MNS general secretary Shirish Parkar was not ready to give credit to the Sena. "The BKS conducted a meeting with the Jet Airways management only after the MNS came into the scene. They are frustrated and could not win the confidence of the sacked employees," he said.