Union home minister Amit Shah used his two-day Ganpati darshan visit to Mumbai to reassert the BJP’s dominance in the upcoming BMC elections. On the offensive while launching the party poll campaign, he reopened old wounds and cried out “betrayal and backstabbing” by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray during the 2019 state assembly elections and said that his “greed” was the reason his own party turned against him.
Addressing BJP office-bearers, Shah said “it’s time to
hit the field to achieve Mission 2022... teach Uddhav a lesson and show him his place in Mumbai politics”. “We can tolerate anything but betrayal,” he said.
Shah said, “Uddhav Thackeray ditched us by breaking the alliance for only two seats. He betrayed us after seeking votes in the names of Narendra Modi and Devendra Fadnavis. He should be punished by winning Mumbai. The BJP’s target is to win 150 seats in the civic poll.”
While exhorting party workers to defeat Thackeray’s faction, he asserted that the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led leaders are the real Shiv Sena. Shah asserted, “I want to say it again that we never promised Uddhav Thackeray the post of chief minister. We practice politics openly, not in closed rooms.”
The Union minister said those who ditch somebody in politics never become successful. “Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership has become weak and reached its present state due to its politics of betrayal. The BJP should dominate the politics in Mumbai,” said Shah in his hard-hitting speech. Spelling out the BJP’s future political line, he also said the party wants to end the anti-Hindu politics in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asked party workers to treat the upcoming BMC elections as if they are “the last and work hard for the party's victory”.
Fadnavis said, “The original Shiv Sena (Shinde camp) is now with us in Mumbai. There should be only one objective… All office bearers and former corporators have an important role to play to achieve the Mission Mumbai target.”
