Ridicules Shiv Sena’s dismal performance in Goa; says next target is Sena-controlled BMC
@the_news_21
Mumbai: Revelling in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) electoral triumph in four states including Goa, former Maharashtra Chief Devendra Fadnavis who was the BJP’s Goa election in-charge, asserted that his party would form the government in Maharashtra after the 2024 Assembly election with full majority.
Addressing jubilant party workers near the BJP’s Nariman point office in Mumbai after BJP’s triumph in Goa, Fadnavis said that the BJP’s next target was to rid the Shiv Sena-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of corruption.
An upbeat Fadnavis remarked, “We want to rescue the civic body from the clutches of corruption. The BJP is not against any party (Sena) per se, but against corruption.” He further added that the BJP would not rest until the BMC was rid of corruption.
In a bid to checkmate the Sena, the BJP has been eyeing the cash-rich BMC, which is the Sena’s power and resource base in Maharashtra and has been controlled by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena for more than two decades.
Arguing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘magic’ had shone bright through in the results in the elections to these four states, the BJP Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly said that whether be it the Covid-19 pandemic or any other crisis, Modi had managed to create a trust among the country’s electorate that saw it being translated into votes.
The BJP’s long-standing alliance with the Sena fell-apart after the two saffron parties fought bitterly over the Chief Minister’s post following the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, which led the Sena to formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance with the ideologically opposed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress to keep the BJP out of power despite the latter emerging as the single-largest party in Maharashtra with 105 seats.
Taking pot-shots at the Congress’ performance in the Goa Assembly election, he said that the Congress thought they would win and had already sought an appointment beforehand with the Governor of Goa (P.S. Shreedharan Pillai).
Mocking the Congress, Fadnavis remarked further “But such were the results (Congress won only 11 seats as against BJP winning 20 seats) that no one from the Congress side turned up to stake claim to form the government.”
Taking a swipe at its erstwhile partner, the Sena, Fadnavis said that the Uddhav Thackeray-led party was a non-entity in the electoral contest in Goa.
Unsparing in his comments on Sena’s claims of being a contender in the Goa assembly polls, Fadnavis said, “The Sena was loudly boasting that its fight was with the BJP…in reality, they were competing with the ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) votes. Even with its combined alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Sena-NCP’s vote share is barely a little over the NOTA votes.”
The NCP-Sena alliance secured a combined vote share of 1.32% of which the Sena’s share was a dismal 0.18% while the NOTA vote figure stood at 1.12%.
The Sena, which is in alliance with the Congress and the NCP in Maharashtra, was eager to form an alliance with the Goa Congress to take on the BJP only to be rudely rebuffed by the latter. Despite Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s claims of his party being in the reckoning in Goa, the Sena has scant presence with its candidates performing even more dismally this time than in the 2017 Assembly election.
