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Show Uddhav his place: Amit Shah begins campaign for BMC elections
Home minister Amit Shah told party leaders to ensure that the BJP won 150 of the 227 seats in elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) , widely seen as a prestige battle in the state.
Union home minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah denied having given any assurance to the Shiv Sena and its chief Uddhav Thackeray regarding the chief minister’s post ahead of the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, accused the latter of treachery (for parting ways with the BJP), and called on party workers to ensure the Sena’s defeat in the crucial polls to the Mumbai civic body later this year.
The home minister told party leaders to ensure that the BJP won 150 of the 227 seats in elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) , widely seen as a prestige battle in the state.
“If you slap someone anywhere, he will be hurt... But if you slap anyone in front of their home, it hurts the soul. There is an opportunity to hurt (the Shiv Sena) in Mumbai,” said Shah, who was speaking to BJP legislators and leaders in Mumbai on Monday. The Shiv Sena has traditionally controlled BMC.
He described the BMC elections as the best opportunity to get back at Thackeray. “The dominance of the BJP must be established over Mumbai’s politics,” stressed Shah.
“…Uddhav Thackeray betrayed us. Those who are in the habit of betraying others in politics cannot strengthen their position in politics,” said Shah. “In politics, you can tolerate injustice… but those who betray others must be punished.”
“It is necessary for every worker of the BJP to hit the ground in this electoral battle and fight for the honour of the party,” said Shah. The former BJP national president said that after the party rode to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections under Narendra Modi, it decided to negotiate the power-sharing terms with the Sena based on the BJP’s national popularity and also to expand the party’s footprint.
“However, for just two seats… the Shiv Sena snapped the alliance ahead of the 2014 state polls) ,” charged Shah, adding that: “they (Shiv Sena) were cooking a khayali pulao . (They felt) where will the BJP go? We will get more seats and install our man as the chief minister,” he added. But these plans had come to naught with the BJP getting more seats and the Sena emerging as the smaller party. “It was not the BJP’s handiwork to reduce the Shiv Sena to a smaller party. If the Shiv Sena became the smaller party, you (Uddhav Thackeray) are responsible for that and no one else,” he said. The Shiv Sena later joined the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government.
Shah denied having promised the Shiv Sena the chief minister’s position after the 2019 state assembly elections. He pointed to how during the campaign, BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unequivocally said that Fadnavis would be the chief minister. Shah added that he called on people to “vote for the Shiv Sena to make Devendra Fadnavis the chief minister” in two rallies which were also attended by Thackeray.
Shah charged the Shiv Sena with working to defeat the BJP’s nominees in the 2019 assembly election and added that despite this “back-stabbing,” the BJP won more seats. However, the Shiv Sena allied with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress to form the MVA government, which fell year after a majority of Sena legislators left the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction.
He said that chief minister Eknath Shinde’s rebel faction represented the real Shiv Sena . “Eknath Shinde did not betray (you). Uddhavji, it was you who betrayed your ideology… Eknath Shinde is standing with the original ideology of the Shiv Sena,” added Shah. He accused Thackeray of joining hands with an erstwhile foe--NCP chief Sharad Pawar -- for power, after seeking votes in the name of Modi and the performance of Fadnavis.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said it was necessary for BJP leaders and workers “act as if this poll (to the BMC) is the last election of your life.” “Work with the credo of abhi nahi to kabhi nahi (now or never) in this poll,” he urged, while calling on them to shun any intra-party differences for the larger battle that was on their hands.
“Such language does not behove a home minister. He is the home minister of the country and hence should not use such language,” said Shiv Sena legislator and spokesperson Manisha Kayande. Kayande charged that unlike Shiv Sainiks who worked for the welfare of the people across the year, the BJP was active only during elections.
