Sanjay Raut accuses both TMC and AAP for using money to woo voters
@the_news_21
Mumbai: Little over a month after meeting Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Mumbai on November 30, 2021, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Sunday lashed out at the TMC, alleging it was splitting the Congress in poll-bound Goa by poaching its leaders.
In his weekly Sunday column Rokhthok in the Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut criticized Mamata Banerjee’s ‘resolve’ to allegedly finish-off the Congress in Goa, which is slated to go to polls on February 10.
It may be recalled that senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut along with Yuva Sena chief and Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray had called upon the TMC in Mumbai on November 30, 2021, during her three-day Mumbai visit. She also held separate meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar. The Congress leaders in Maharashtra however did not meet the TMC chief. The Sena, the NCP and the Congress share power in Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)
coalition government.
The Sena leader also hit out at the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), accusing both the TMC and the AAP were using money to woo voters and poach Goa’s established leaders. “The state of affairs in Goa is such that all parties have made it a ‘political laboratory’,” Raut remarked sarcastically.
Raut said that while uprooting the country’s grand old party in the country could be the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s dream. It did not behove of someone like Mamata Banerjee, who, too was fighting the BJP, to adopt such a stance. The Sena leader said the TMC’s politics would ultimately benefit the BJP.
It may be recalled that the TMC chief during her recent Mumbai visit had questioned the presence of the Congress as a national party and it being the fulcrum of all opposition political parties.
“The lack of a strong leadership in Goa has led to the Congress coming down to a mere two MLAs from its strength of 17 MLAs after the 2017 Assembly election…moreover, as Goa has never had much relevance in Delhi politics, there is not much overseeing of the Congress at the national level. As a result, ‘outside parties’ like the TMC and the AAP are now suddenly seen talking about the welfare of Goan’s and are eyeing Christian votes,” said Raut.
Appearing to prop-up the sagging fortunes of the grand-old party, the Sena leader contended that Goan’s would nonetheless stand by the Congress.
After Sanjay Raut met Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi in early December 2021, the Sena is seen to be growing in proximity to the Congress. It came as little surprise that the Sena has criticized Mamata Banerjee for adopting an ‘anti-Congress’ stance in the opposition’s fight against the BJP.
Questioning the TMC’s source of the funds used in the Goa elections, the Sena leader accused the ruling BJP for freely misusing money to cling to power in the coastal State. Raut further said that no political party was allegedly talking about real issues and that those people involved in the business of casinos were the real ones controlling the State’s politics.
Raut further alleged, “The BJP, which has ruled Goa for the last decade, has been ‘buying out’ legislators from other parties with abandon as it had failed to secure majority in the 2017 election… but this time, people whom I met (in Goa) say that the BJP will not get a majority even this time. The presence of the TMC will ultimately help the BJP …BJP’s incumbent MLAs and ticket aspirants are ‘history sheeters’ who have been involved in drug-trafficking.”
The Sena MP had earlier said that his party was looking to form an MVA-like alliance in Goa, with the Sena planning to field candidates in 20-25 seats in the 40-seat Assembly election.
The Sena’s performance had been abysmal in the 2017 Assembly election, with the party losing heavily on all the three seats (Saligao, Cuncolim and Mormugao) which it had contested while managing to secure a paltry vote share of less than 2%.
