Days after complaining to Amit Shah, Shinde publicly targets BJP in Dahanu

Without naming the BJP, Shinde declared that everyone had come together (in Dahanu) against “dictatorship and arrogance”.

MUMBAI: The simmering stress between deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the BJP flared up again on Saturday with Shinde attacking the saffron party in his election rally at Dahanu. Without naming the BJP, Shinde declared that everyone had come together (in Dahanu) against “dictatorship and arrogance”.

“Even Ravana was arrogant, and hence his Lanka was burnt down,” Eknath Shinde said.(HT Photo/ Praful Gangurde)

“Even Ravana was arrogant, and hence his Lanka was burnt down,” he said. “You have to do the same on December 2. People must finish corruption and vote for development.” The deputy CM directed the crowd to get Raju Machhi of the Sena and his team elected. Kiran Sankhye, the district chief of the Shiv Sena, said, “We have fielded Raju Machhi, and the BJP has fielded its district chief Bharat Rajput. Both factions of the NCP are backing the Sena candidate.”

Shinde was on a tour of Palghar district, and addressed four meetings on Saturday for the nagar parishad elections due on December 2. In the Dahanu polls, his party is locked in a direct fight with the BJP.

Shinde’s Sena and the BJP have been sniping at each other for a while. While Shinde is the guardian minister of Thane district, the BJP has appointed forest minister Ganesh Naik as the sampark mantri or liaison minister there, with the mandate to cut Shinde down to size. In a counter-measure, Shinde reached out into Palghar, where Naik is the guardian minister. The two politicians have been rivals for decades, right from their time together in the undivided Shiv Sena.

Last week, the tension between the two parties increased exponentially. First, the Shiv Sena inducted five former corporators of the Ulhasnagar municipal corporation into its ranks. This was followed by the BJP taking away key former corporators of the Sena, some of them close aides of Sena MP and Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde. The Sena ministers boycotted the cabinet as a mark of protest.

After this, a meeting ensued with CM Devendra Fadnavis where the BJP and Sena reached an agreement that neither party would poach on the other. A sulking Shinde then visited union home minister Amit Shah with a slew of complaints.

Late on Thursday night, a former BJP corporator of Thane roughed up two Shiv Sena functionaries. On Friday, Shinde stayed away from a programme in Navi Mumbai where he was to share the stage with Ganesh Naik.

When quizzed about the internecine rivalry, BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye insisted that the Mahayuti alliance partners had “excellent relations” at the state level. “We wanted an alliance at all the local levels but it did not happen,” he said. “These references are at the local level and not about state politics.”