BJP State chief Patil stokes controversy, says Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj created Hindu vote-bank, Vajpayee-Modi realized it, Shiv Sena hits back

NCP, Congress term State BJP chief’s remarks an insult to the Maratha warrior king’s multi-faith ideals

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Pune: Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Maharashtra unit chief Chandrakant Patil sparked off controversy remarking that Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj having developed a Hindu vote-bank, with the ruling ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ (MVA) coalition of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress lambasting the BJP leader’s remarks. 

The state BJP president, speaking in Pune, had earlier said that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had created the ‘Hindu vote bank’ which was later realized and brought into reality in recent times by senior BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Patil had made his remarks in the context of vote-banks and of awarding tickets to political party candidates. 

“It is the prerogative of a party to award or not to award tickets to candidates. A particular vote-bank is not the preserve of any single candidate…it is built over the years by the party and belongs to it… In fact, the concept of the vote-bank stretches back to the times of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who developed the Hindu vote bank…in recent times, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Prime Minister Modi have helped bring this vote-bank into reality,” Patil had remarked.  

Reacting to Chandrakant Patil’s remarks on Wednesday, Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut shot back that it was late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray who was the first in the country “to ask the Hindu community to vote as Hindus”.  

In a sharp rejoinder to the state BJP chief, the Sena spokesperson remarked, “It was Balasaheb Thackeray who proved for the first time that there is a vote- bank of Hindus in the country. He and the Sena have proved that the ideal ‘Hindutva’ is not merely limited to temples nor is it just a politics of convenience as practised by some parties (oblique reference to the BJP).”  

Raut further added that it was the Shiv Sena who had fought in the country for the first time on the issue of Hindutva in the assembly by-election in Vile Parle (in Mumbai) in 1992.  “At that time, no one could imagine that the Sena should contest the elections on the Hindutva plank… Shiv Sena MLAs Ramesh Prabhu, Suryakant Mahadik and other MLAs had even been disqualified from contesting elections on the issue of Hindutva. I don’t think any MP or MLA from the BJP had to ever forfeit his candidature over this issue,” further remarked Raut.

Ever since the Shiv Sena aligned with the ideologically opposite Congress and the NCP to deny the BJP of power in Maharashtra, the Sena’s stand on ‘Hindutva’ has been increasingly under attack with the BJP losing no chance to criticise Uddhav Thackeray’s party of having abandoned its ‘Hindutva’s’ ideals. 

Meanwhile, Chandrakant Patil’s comments evoked a different kind of condemnation from the NCP and the Congress, NCP Lok Sabha MP Amol Kolhe remarked that the BJP leader’s statements were “an insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s inclusive and multi-faith principles”. 

Kolhe further remarked, “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had helped establish the rule of the rayat (tillers) and given that his name is taken with great pride everywhere with respect to the ideals of Swarajya and his inclusive ideals, Patil’s remarks on the legendary ruler having created a ‘Hindu vote-bank’ is extremely regrettable.”