Indirectly suggesting that it was not happy with the BJP’s decision to nominate Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind for the Presidential polls, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said on Monday that if a Dalit candidate was being put up for the sake of cornering Dalit votes, his party had no interest in such a nomination.
“If you indulge in mere vote bank politics, then the Sena will not be part of such politics. The vote bank politics may help a party win an election, but it will not be in the interest of the country,” he said.
Ahead of the Sena’s formal decision on Kovind’s Presidential poll nomination to be taken at a party leaders’ meeting called by him on Tuesday, Uddhav said in a carefully calibrated reaction “How does it make a difference any of us as to who would become the PresidentIJ But, if a Dalit is being nominated for the sake of Dalit votes in the polls, then we have no interest in such a nomination. But, if you decide to nominate a person who, after getting elected, would work for not just Dalits but work in the interest of the whole country, then the Sena is with you (BJP).”
Addressing the 51st birth anniversary of the Shiv Sena at Shanmukhananda Hall in north-central Mumbai, Uddhav justified his party’s initial decision of mooting the name of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and said “We had given a good name to the country in the form of Mohan Bhagwat. Thinking that you may have issues with Bhagwat, then we suggested the name of MS Swaminathan, who has the interests of farmers in his mind. The Sena has nothing to do with either Bhagwat or Mohan Bhagwat. We suggested the names of persons who can contribute to the interests of the country”.