likening the Shiv Sainiks to Kauravas, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavais said here on Saturday that the BJP would wage a “Dharma Yudh” with the Shiv Sena which had broken its ties with his party after refusing to accept its agenda of “transparency and honesty” for the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
launching the BJP’s campaign for the 21 BMC polls two days after the Shiv Sena severed its electoral ties with his party, Fadnavis said: “The question was not the number of seats to be fought by each of the saffron alliance partners. Though my party colleagues who had gone for seat-sharing talks with their Sena counterparts were insisting on the BJP being allocated half the number of seats from the total 227 seats, I told people that let the Sena might at least 10 seats more than us. But, we made it clear to the Sena that we would not compromise on the agenda of transparency and honesty in the governance of BMC, a thing that did not go well with our alliance partner”.
“In the 2012 elections, the BJP had fought a relatively number of 66 seats in the BMC polls. That time, we were not as strong as the Sena in Mumbai. But, during the 2014 lok Sabha and Assembly polls, our strength increased substantially in the metropolis. In such a backdrop, the Sena offered us mere 60 seats out of the total 227 seats. That goes to prove that the Sena was not prepared to accept out agenda of transparency and honesty. When it offered 60 seats to us, the Sena had pre-decided that it would not to have alliance with us,” the chief minister said.
Dubbing Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut as “Shakuni” and indirectly likening Uddhav with Duryodhana, Fadnavis said: “Shakuni has made it known that we do not deserve more than 60 seats. Come February 21, we will prove as to what is our actual strength”.
In perhaps the most caustic criticism of the Shiv Sena, Fadnavis charged that while on one hand the Sena claimed that it was inheritor of the legacy of Maratha warrior Shivaji legacy, on the other, the party workers with saffron flag in hand indulged in extortions. “When we came together, we had two similarities. One was that both oif us were crusading for the Hindutva cause, while secondly we were espousing the ideals of Shivaji. What is not acceptable today is that our ally to invoke the name of Shivaji even while indulging in extortions with saffron flags in hand”.
However, towards the end of his more than hour-long speech, Fadnavis struck conciliatory note when he said: “The Sena may have broken its alliance with and decided to contest the polls on its own strength. But, the Sena is not our rival in ideological terms. All the same, we do not accept their conduct i.e, their indulgence in corruption. Our actual fight is against the ideologies of the Congress and NCP. We are confident of a victory in this electoral battle”.
Earlier, Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar taunted the Shiv Sena for its failure to include the promise of the construction of a memorial for late Sena chief Bal Thackeray, in its party manifesto for the BMC polls released early this week.