Uddhav Thackeray dares Narendra Modi to campaign for BJP in Mumbai for BMC elections
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray
As the poll date for the upcoming BMC elections approaches, Shiv Sena took another dig at its former ally by challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to campaign for BJP in Mumbai.
Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday dared the PM to campaign in Mumbai, stating that he wants to witness Sena’s victory in the BMC elections despite Modi’s efforts.
“I am waiting to see whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will campaign for the BJP in Mumbai. I want to witness the Sena’s victory after his (Modi’s) rally. In Bihar, Modiji was almost auctioning from the podium and Lalu Prasad Yadav made a mockery of him. Modiji was defeated.”
Thackeray, who was speaking at an election rally in Chandivali, went on to add that Mumbai knows who has stood by them in their hour of need. He also took another dig at the government’s demonetisation decision, hailing it as ‘mockery of traders’.
The senior partner in the current BMC also went on to suggest that enquiries should be conducted into whether the government was even allowed to hold the stone-laying ceremonies of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial in the Arabian Sea and the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial at Indu mill without issuing tenders.
While the BJP has been campaigning for bringing transparency and eradicating corruption from the civic body, a recent pan-India survey pegged Mumbai’s BMC as one of the most transparent and efficient civic bodies in the country.
Thackeray used that to his advantage and ridiculed the BJP’s ‘oath of transparency’, which senior members of the party took at Hutatma Chowk last week.
He also boasted about how all progress reports of the BMC were available online, which citizens could access without even filing an RTI application.
“The Chief Minister should tell us who supported his government before we (Sena) extended our support. How did he manage the majority? This CM talks one thing inside the Assembly and the other outside. The package of ₹6,500 crore promised to the Kalyan Dombivli Corporation is yet to be delivered. The CM has duped them,” Uddhav added.
Sena and BJP, allies for over two decades, were unable to continue their ongoing tie-up in the upcoming civic body elections following disagreements over seat sharing and constant friction between both parties’ leaders.
