Turning up aggression on the Shiv Sena and its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that it will prepare to come to power on its own sans any allies, thus ruling out any truck with its former associate in the future.
“We must prepare to control Maharashtra on our own next time. We must prepare for this from today... Without any allies, the BJP will alone ensure the lotus blooms in Maharashtra,” said BJP national president JP Nadda. He was speaking on Monday at a virtual meeting with BJP office bearers in Maharashtra.
“Under Devendra Fadnavis as the opposition leader and with the BJP as an opposition party, we have successfully worked to expose the Maharashtra government. We must carry on with this. This is a government that is working in a shameless manner, and has been put together for selfish ends. This is an unholy alliance that has formed the government. This government is in place for profits,” charged Nadda, adding that the government was rife with internal squabbles, intra-party fights and had failed in handling the COVID-19 crisis.
“The people have realised that they (the state government) have achieved nothing except their selfish interests. I have also come to know that they are also involved in ghotalas (irregularities) in handling the pandemic. This must be exposed further,” he urged. Nadda urged the state BJP to involve the IT cell to create graphics and videos on the failures of Maharashtra and circulate them on WhatsApp to maximise their reach.
Fadnavis taunted Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for his statement about the MVA government being a three-seater rickshaw, which is the vehicle of the poor. “You hold the steering of the auto-rickshaw, but Uddhavji, you forgot that the destination of the rickshaw is decided not by the driver, but by your two passengers (Congress and NCP),” he said.
Fadnavis added that BJP ‘had no interest in destabilising the government, but you must at least try to run it.’ Accusing the MVA of failing on all fronts, he said this talk of the BJP trying to topple the government was a bogey to divert attention from its failures.
BJP state unit president Chandrakant Patil too urged that the party functionaries and cadre must counter any personal criticism or taunting of its leadership by the opposition, and warned that ‘keeping mum amounts to acceptance.’