Sena decline will help NCP: Bhujbal

?WHEN I left the Shiv Sena in 1992 it was very difficult, as the party was at its peak. Now it is comparatively easier to leave, as it is on the wane,? said Maharashtra PWD Minister and former Sena strongman Chagan Bhujbal at a meet the press programme at Indore Press Club today.

“WHEN I left the Shiv Sena in 1992 it was very difficult, as the party was at its peak. Now it is comparatively easier to leave, as it is on the wane,” said Maharashtra PWD Minister and former Sena strongman Chagan Bhujbal at a meet the press programme at Indore Press Club today.

HT Image

The defection of Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray has hurt the party badly, Bhujbal said, adding that with Bal Thackeray’s failing health it would be very difficult for the party to revitalise. He said that the Congress and NCP would be main beneficiaries of Shiv Sena’s decline.

Commenting on the poor state of finances in Maharashtra, Bhujbal blamed the previous Sena-BJP Government. He said that profligacy of the previous regime, where ambitious projects were started without adequate money, resulted in huge borrowing and consequent debt.

“We also had to borrow since many of the projects had to be completed, otherwise the money spent on them would have gone waste,” Bhujbal said, and added that now things were slowly improving.

He dismissed suggestions that ultimately the NCP would merge with Congress and said NCP’s base was expanding. Former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma had rejoined the party and had won his seat. The party had even managed a seat in Assam.

On the work he had done as PWD Minister in Maharashtra, he said that at present 95 per cent of the villages in Maharashtra had all-season roads and work was on to cover the remaining five per cent.