One of the allies in BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the Centre, Shiv Sena is seriously mulling to contest ensuing Gujarat elections by fielding candidates in 50 to 75 Assembly seats out of 182.
Gujarat elections are slated in two phases on December 9 and 14. Talking to mediapersons Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member Anil Desai said that BJP had forgotten it’s original aim of preserving sentiments of the majority community.
According to him, Hindutva has always been the forte of Shiv Sena since its inception. Unfortunately the saffron party had forgotten that people voted it over the agenda of Hindutva, Desai said, adding that Shiv Sena would give better option to people of Gujarat.
He quickly added that Hindutva wouldn’t be the only agenda of his party as the party founded by Bala Saheb Thackeray would also focus on basic issues including health, education, agriculture and overall improvement of quality of life.
On Hardik’s meeting with Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray, Desai said that only thing discussed during that meeting was with regards to Maratha reservations. “Caste and casteism is not our cup of tea. To us, all communities are equal,” he added.
Shiv Sena would prefer to contest singlehandedly in certain seats without any political alliance in Gujarat, he said, adding that a team of the party is working on the seats where candidates from the political outfit have chance of winning.
It is believed that the saffron party would focus its attention on urban centres as Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Surat, where BJP or Congress had won with a margin of less than 5,000 votes. These urban centres also happen to be places where Congress is seen to be denting the margins of BJP, courtesy caste issues and issues related to GST and demonetisation.
He claimed that already 50 candidates were identified who would contest the polls in different parts of the State. More candidates have evinced interest for the party ticket which is under consideration, he stated.