In a development that threatened to wreak the saffron alliance in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday ridiculed its senior ruling ally, BJP, over the latter’s embarrassing debacle in the Delhi Assembly polls, contending that the “broom-wielding” Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had reduced it to “dirt” and laying the blame of the party’s defeat at the door of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A day after Sena president Uddhav Thackeray rubbed salt into the senior alliance partner’s wound, saying that through their electoral verdict the voters in the national capital had established that a “tsunami” was any day mightier than a “wave”, his party’s mouth-piece Saamana turned up the heat on the BJP and Modi over the party’s disastrous show in the Delhi Assembly polls.
Debunking the efforts by the BJP to put the onus of its pathetic poll performance on the party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi, the Sena mouth-piece virtually asked Modi to accept the responsibility for the defeat.
“The BJP, which posted a spectacular victory under the leadership of Modi during the last year’s lok Sabha polls, has been reduced to dirt by the broom-wielding AAP.... let alone the party reaching the double digit figure, one does not even need fingers in a hand to count the number of seats won by the BJP. laying the blame for the party’s defeat at Kiran Bedi’s door will not do,” the Saamana stated.
“Riding on the Modi wave, the BJP had decimated the Opposition in the lok Sabha polls. How come that with Modi continuing to helm the party’s campaign, the BJP has failed to emerge even as a powerful Opposition party in DelhiIJ,” the Sena mouth-piece asked.
“ ... What we witnessed in Delhi was that a tsunami was mightier than a wave. Even in Maharashtra Assembly polls, some people had talked about the (Modi) wave had played its part in the electoral outcome. However, the wave had begun to recede three months ago. The receded wave turned into tsunami and flooded Delhi where the BJP suffered a humiliating defeat,” the Sena editorial stated.
“The BJP feels that the defeat in the Delhi polls can not be attributed to Modi. If Modi cannot be blamed for the BJP’s poll debacle in Delhi, whom it should be attributed toIJ If Kejriwal won the polls, then who was defeated in DelhiIJ. let’s face it the BJP fought the entire campaign in the Delhi polls was run in the name of Modi. That being the case, we –like Anna Hazare – believe that Modi should accept responsibility for the defeat in the Delhi polls,” the Sena mouth-piece averred.
AAP may have won, but PM hasn't lost, says Fadnavis
Understandably on the defensive over the BJP’s debacle in the Delhi Assembly polls, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday sought to play down his party’s poor poll performance, by saying that the victories and loses were a part of elections and that the latest poll outcome in the national Capital was in no way a verdict on PM Narendra Modi.
Talking to mediapersons at Nashik, Fadnavis said: “In elections, some parties win, while some others lose. That does not mean that the BJP’s debacle in the Delhi Assembly polls can be attributed to either our Prime Minister or the party’s national chief. Our party will do an introspection on the reasons for our party’s defeat in the polls”.