Mumbai: Ahead of Maharashtra assembly elections, another incident took place adding to the existing instances displaying discord within the Mahayuti. On Thursday, a video went viral on the internet showing Shiv Sena MLA from Mumbai's Byculla, Yamini Jadhav distributing burqas to women.
Jadhav had organised the event on September 7, as per the poster circulated on social media platform X. However, after the video went viral on September 12, BJP expressed its dissociation from the event. "We do not support the initiative taken by MLA Yamini Jadhav. I am not aware what the program exactly was, but we (BJP) do not support it," clarified Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar speaking with the media.
Ahead of the state polls, the sitting MLA and her husband Yashwant Jadhav, former Standing Committee chairman of BMC and Shiv Sena's deputy leader, had organised the event in Byculla to honour Muslim women. "To honour the Muslim women of Byculla, Yamini Jadhav and Yashwant Jadhav present a unique gift-giving ceremony," read the poster by Jadhav inviting Muslim women.
"Join us as we show appreciation and respect for Muslim mothers and sisters in our community," it added.
Shiv Sena Trying To Woo Muslim Voters
The event not only raised more questions on growing disharmony with the Mahayuti (BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP) alliance partners but sparked a new controversy. New tensions have now begun on the seat-sharing formula for the state assembly elections.
For the recent Lok Sabha elections, Shiv Sena’s Yamini Jadhav was fielded as Mahayuti candidate against the sitting MLA Arvind Sawant from Shiv Sena (UBT). Jadhav, however, lost to Sawant by more than 52,637 votes. Even from the Byculla constituency, Sawant was lead with 46,066 votes.
The poor performance by the sitting MLA led to realisation that despite being an active MLA, Jadhav lost because the Muslim voters apparently favoured the MVA candidate. Thus, it is said that ahead of the assembly elections, the program to distribute burqas to women was organised to woo Muslim voters.
