MUMBAI: With its leaders facing heat from central investigating agencies, the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is seeking to hit back at the BJP, which rules the Centre, where it hurts the most.
The party has launched a mass contact programme, ‘Shiv Sampark Abhiyan’, with the intention to expand its base, especially in BJP bastions where it earlier did not foray to observe ‘coalition dharma’ as it was in alliance with the party.
The Shiv Sena’s mass outreach is aimed at spreading the “good work” of Maha Vikas Aghadi and counter the “false propaganda of the BJP” to create a wrong perception about the Sena as a pro-Muslim party.
According to a party leader, Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has asked MPs and MLAs to visit their constituencies and meet people at each and every nook and corner.
“We have been also asked to expand the party base in areas where Shiv Sena never fielded candidates in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections due to alliance with the BJP. Traditionally, these seats were with the BJP and therefore, despite having a strong base, the Sena never contested elections there. Now that we are no longer in alliance with the BJP, these seats can be targeted for next elections,” said Sunil Prabhu, a senior Sena MLA.
He said that Sena has a network in every part of the state.
“Our job will be to energise the cadres. We will visit loyal and hardcore Shiv Sainiks and meet their families. We will take our party president’s message to the masses. The BJP has been misusing central agencies and targeting MVA leaders and resorting to all sorts of propaganda against Sena and our leadership. We will expose the BJP’s propaganda,” Prabhu said.
Another Sena leader said “the people’s court is the highest” and Sena will go there.
Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who is in Vidarbha as part of the Shiv Sampark drive, questioned on Tuesday why the central agencies like ED and CBI were overactive only in opposition-ruled Maharashtra and Bengal.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena workers staged a protest in Nagpur on Wednesday against the latest hike in prices of petrol, diesel and domestic cooking gas and demanded a roll-back.
The protest was held at Golibar Chowk in the city, where the party workers pressed for an immediate roll-back of the hike in fuel prices and threatened to launch a 'Rail Roko' agitation if the central government did not accept their demand.
Shiv Sena leader Suraj Goje said the Centre is not working for the benefit of common citizens.
"The people have been deceived by the BJP's false slogans of patriotism and Hindutva. If the Centre does not roll-back the price hike, Sena workers would start a' Rail Roko' agitation," Goje warned.
The petrol and diesel prices were on Tuesday hiked by 80 paise a litre, while the domestic cooking gas prices were increased by Rs 50 per cylinder, ending an over four-and-half month election-related hiatus in rate revision.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday hit out at BJP MLA Nitesh Rane for demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after the ED attached assets of a company owned by the CM's brother-in-law.
Patole said Nitesh Rane's father, Union minister Narayan Rane, a former Congressman, too, had faced corruption charges from BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and wondered what happened to the same.
The state Congress chief asked whether those who join the BJP become "holy".
Kankavli MLA Nitesh Rane had pitched for Thackeray's resignation on Tuesday after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 6.
45 crore of a company owned by Shridhar Madhav Patankar, Thackeray's brother-in-law, in connection with a money laundering investigation.
"Somaiya had levelled serious corruption charges against Narayan Rane and Kripashankar Singh (when the two were in Congress before joining BJP). What happened to those allegations?"
"Do those who face allegations become holy on joining the BJP?" Patole counter questioned when media persons asked him about Nitesh Rane's demand.
He accused the BJP of making allegations against Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders to divert the people's attention from key issues like price rise, unemployment and fuel price hike.
Thackeray is also the president of the Shiv Sena, which heads the MVA government.
The Congress and the NCP are constituents of the ruling coalition.
Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday asked if state minister Jayant Patil had any problem with BJP MLAs attending the screening of Hindi film "The Kashmir Files".
Hitting back, Patil said the film is "boring after the interval" and that Fadnavis should ask the movie's producer to donate its earnings for constructing homes for the displaced Kashmir Pandits.
Patil had on Tuesday taken a swipe at the BJP MLAs for attending the film's screening while business was still being transacted in the state Assembly, saying watching the movie was more important for them than the issues concerning the state's development.
He had apparently referred to a special show of the movie organised by BJP leader Kripa Shankar Singh on Tuesday evening.
Speaking in the Lower House on Wednesday, Fadnavis said "The minister spoke (about attending the screening) yesterday. We had decided and we watched 'The Kashmir Files' yesterday."
"Do you have any problem with it? We did watch it. You talk about it outside (the House) if you have any problem," he said.
Countering the BJP leader, Patil said the film is "boring and not quite interesting" after the interval.
"See, you (the BJP leaders) know it. If you are praising the film, it was made spending Rs 17 crore and it earned Rs 150 crore. Ask the film's producer to donate the earnings for constructing homes for Kashmiri Pandits," the state water resources minister said.
Earlier, Fadnavis alleged that the opposition members were not allowed adequate time to raise their issues in the House.
Patil, however, refuted the charge.
CM discusses action against MVA leaders
The issue of actions by central agencies against MVA leaders and their close relatives or associates came up for discussion during the meeting of the state cabinet chaired by CM Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday.
In the evening, Thackeray hosted a dinner for Shiv Sena leaders at his official residence in south Mumbai.
(With PTI Inputs)