Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has blamed the Shiv Sena’s “stubborn” approach for causing a split in the saffron alliance in the upcoming municipal elections.
Hitting out at Sena for not accepting the proposition of ushering in greater transparency in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mr. Fadnavis alleged that Sena was culpable in the “collapse” of Mumbai’s infrastructure and Sena refused to mend ways despite inflicting “irreparable losses” on Mumbai during the last 25 years of its rule.
Speaking to party workers at a rally in Goregaon on Saturday, an aggressive Fadnavis said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was willing to compromise on a few seats but not on the need for a having a transparent government in the BMC. However, the Sena insisted they would not give anything more than 60 seats instead of considering the BJP’s demand of 50:50 formula resulting in a break-up, Mr. Fadnavis said.
“What was the mistake in asking for transparency? Did I do anything wrong? The BJP will not join any government that does not believe in the ideals of the warrior king Shivaji, who was the foremost proponent of transparent governance. The Sena’s thoughts were corrupt and therefore they backed out of this alliance,” Mr. Fadnavis said, urging his party workers to prepare for “ dharma yudh ” against corrupt actions of the Congress/Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and “corrupt thoughts” of the Sena.
“In dharma yudh , we should not see who is our opponent but take side of the ideals of right governance. And only those who are transparent, have the right to invoke the name of Shivaji and his style of clean governance,”he said.
Speaking for more than 20 minutes, the Chief Minister repeatedly highlighted the failures of Shiv Sena during their 25 years of rule. The Sena, he said, must own up for the irreparable damages it had caused to Mumbai — not creating 24x7 water supply, sufficient rail network and the astronomical rise in property prices.
Earlier in the day, Sena blamed the BJP for rampant corruption in as many as 30 State departments.
