Express News Service
MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday rejected the AIMIM’s offer of alliance, terming it a BJP ploy to defame the Shiv Sena which is heading the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state.
Addressing Sena MPs and other leaders, including district presidents, via video link, Uddhav said, “The Shiv Sena will never ally with the AIMIM, which is the ‘B’ team of the BJP… Who has sought an alliance with the AIMIM? This is a game plan and conspiracy of the BJP. The AIMIM and the BJP have a tacit understanding. The BJP has ordered the AIMIM to defame the Shiv Sena, to raise questions on Sena’s Hindutva. Accordingly, the AIMIM leaders are making the offer.”
AIMIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel had on Saturday said the party was ready to ally with the MVA to prevent the BJP from coming to power.
The NCP and Congress, the other two partners in the MVA, had said the AIMIM must prove that it was a “like-minded” party and not the “BJP’s B-team”.
Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, said the Sena will launch ‘Shiv Sampark Mohim’, a mass outreach programme, on March 22 in 19 districts across Vidarbha and Marathwada regions in Maharashtra on Thackeray’s orders to dispel the confusion the BJP was trying to create about Sena on various issues.
“Uddhav ji said Shiv Sena will never join forces with the AIMIM. The Shiv Sena president also said that his party had never been associated with and will never be associated with those who bow before the grave of Aurangzeb,” Raut said.
The chief minister has asked Shiv Sena leaders to “destroy” those who are doubting Hindutva propagated by the party, he said.
Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday termed Shiv Sena “Janab Sena” while responding to AIMIM’s alliance offer to the Thackeray-led party.
Responding to the jibe, Thackeray said the Sena always believed that Hindutva was above politics.
“What Janab Sena? The Shiv Sena is a staunch Hindutvavadi organisation. It was and will remain Hindutvavadi. The Shiv Sena’s Hindutva is not adulterated,” he said.
Raut recalled that the BJP had formed a government with the “pro-Pakistan and separatist” PDP in Jammu-Kashmir (in 2015).
He sarcastically said that it was a “revolutionary alliance” (between PDP-BJP) that gave a new “direction” to the country.
“Now, we will tell the people which is the real Janab Sena,” Raut said quoting Thackeray.
In the meeting, Thackeray recalled that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had stated that those who take positions against Muslims “are not true Hindutvavadis and cannot be called Hindus,” Raut added.
Thackeray also accused Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of “murdering democracy” by delaying the approval to 12 names sent by the MVA to him to be appointed as MLCs from the Governor’s quota.
AIMIM MP Jaleel had said that AIMIM was always blamed for BJP’s victory in polls and dubbed the ‘B’ team of that party.
“To prove this allegation wrong, I proposed to Rajesh Tope (Maharashtra health minister and NCP leader) that we are ready for an alliance,” he had told a Marathi news channel.
Arguing for the alliance, he also said, “There is no power left in them (Shiv Sena) to defeat the BJP single-handed. That’s why they need the support of Congress and NCP. I propose that let’s add another wheel to the (three-wheeled) autorickshaw and make it a comfortable car. We have expelled the corporator who had opposed the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ (in the Aurangabad municipal corporation) and he has joined the NCP now”.
On Saturday, BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis had taken a swipe at the Shiv Sena, calling it ‘Janab Sena’, after the AIMIM’s alliance offer to the Thackeray-led party.
Responding to the jibe, Uddhav referred to the BJP’s tie-up with the PDP, wondering if the party should be called ‘Hizbul Janata Party’.
“In 2015, the BJP allied with Mehbooba Mufti, whose party had opposed the hanging of terrorist Afzal Guru… Our Hindutva is different from BJP’s Hindutva, which is aimed at power-grabbing at any cost. We parted ways with the BJP, not with Hindutva,” he said.
Announcing to launch a public outreach drive, ‘Shiv Sampark Mohim’, from March 22 in Marathwada and Vidarbha, he asked party leaders to highlight “the illusion and confusion” the BJP is trying to create on various issues by unleashing its propaganda machinery on the lines of the Nazis.
He exhorted Shiv Sena leaders and workers to expand the party’s base, especially in BJP bastions.
“In the past, we could not contest many seats because of our alliance with the BJP. Now, we should focus on these seats and reach out to every household,” he said.
NCP president Sharad Pawar on Sunday said his party was not inclined to ally with AIMIM, a day after AIMIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel proposed an alliance with tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), headed by Shiv Sena.
The Shiv Sena has already rejected Jaleel’s suggestion for an alliance.
“I have been reading about this statement (of Jaleel) but I want to clarify that this is not our party’s stand (to ally with AIMIM),” Pawar told reporters at Baramati in the Pune district.
“They (AIMIM) can talk about alliances but the parties they are talking about should accept such proposal in the first place,” the former Union minister said.
Pawar said though the AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) proposed a tie-up at the state level, the formation of such an alliance has to be approved by the national committee of political parties.
Speaking at another event, Pawar spoke about a possible meeting with authorities regarding another Pune airport, the location for which is yet to be finalised.
“Various defence establishments are located in and around Pune. Every morning, IAF conducts training sorties in these areas. We need to understand their (defence’s) views and for that, we will hold a meeting in the next fortnight,” Pawar said.
(With PTI Inputs)
