Shah, Fadnavis take a swipe at ally Sena

by Shivendra Singh · May 24, 2015

Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis in Kolhapur, Saturday. PTI

In a veiled attack on his party’s alliance partner Shiv Sena, BJP chief Amit Shah Saturday urged party cadres to further strengthen its base in the state so that “those talking about the BJP realised its strength”.

The Shiv Sena, which is part of the BJP-led government in Maharashtra, has often been critical of the ruling party, especially through scathing editorials in its mouthpiece Saamana.

“I appeal to our party leaders in the state to adopt every Assembly constituency that the party lost in the previous elections. They should work very hard to win all seats for the party in the next elections,” Shah said at the inaugural session of the BJP’s national executive in Kolhapur.

“Those talking about us should do so after realising our increased strength in the state,” he said.

Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP would not have realised its increased strength in the state had it not parted ways with the Shiv Sena in the run-up to 2014 Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

“The BJP took a giant leap after the unfortunate break-up of its alliance with Shiv Sena. After a long time, a political party in the state could win more than 100 seats in Assembly elections. The BJP realised its increased strength,” Fadanavis said.

He added that it was only after the confidence shown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah that the state party leaders worked to achieve success in the Assembly elections after parting ways with the Shiv Sena.

State BJP chief Raosaheb Danave said the party cadres should take the achievements of the BJP-led central and state government to every household in and create more confidence among citizens about the party.

Besides Shiv Sena, BJP’s other alliance partners in the state including the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, RPI(A) and Shiv Sangram have also been criticising the BJP. They claim the party has been ignoring them after coming to power and has not fulfilled the assurance of giving them more authority.

Source:: Indian Express