MUMBAI: Resolving to teach Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray a lesson in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, which are likely to be held in October, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday kick-started the BJP’s campaign for the much-awaited polls.
Shah, who has been in Mumbai since Sunday, met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde today before leaving for a darshan of Lalbaugcha Raja at Parel. Shah later visited BJP’s Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar’s Ganesh mandal and addressed party workers there.
Reminding BJP workers that “Uddhav cheated on us in 2019,” Shah said, “You can tolerate anything but not betrayal. And those who betrayed us should be punished and a lesson taught”. Taking his attack against the Shiv Sena further, Shah said that in 2014 the party broke the alliance with the BJP for just two seats in the assembly polls.
“We never considered ourselves as big brother and younger brother. Shiv Sena betrayed us by stabbing us in the back. They defeated our nominees by fielding independent candidates or supporting rival candidates. The Shiv Sena and the BJP together sought votes in 2019 on PM Narendra Modi’s name and the work done by erstwhile CM Devendra Fadnavis. But later they ditched us and formed a government with the Congress and the NCP,” Shah said.
Reacting to Shah’s attack, former Shiv Sena mayor Kishori Pednekar said that the entire world knows who cheated. “We have set out target ‘mission 150’ in the BMC elections. Our local party branches are working round the clock to serve people,” she said.
Calling on the people to show Uddhav Thackeray his place in the BMC polls, Shah exhorted them to put the BJP in a dominant position in Mumbai. On his part, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that while the BJP should fight the elections as though it was for the last time, “this time, the real Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde is with us. In the Ganesh festival, the BJP is everywhere. The Shiv Sena is nowhere to be seen. Actually, the Shiv Sena used to dominate the Ganesh festival”.