Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, after the defeat in the BMC polls, launched an attack on the BJP. He said that the saffron party was mistaken if they think that Shiv Sena can be destroyed. Calling his party the symbol of the sons of the soil, he remarked that Shiv Sena is not just a political party but an idea.Addressing his party workers on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Balasaheb Thackeray, he said, “Shiv Sena is not just a political party. And if the BJP thinks that Shiv Sena will finish it off, you cannot finish Shiv Sena.”He further added, “You cannot destroy Shiv Sena because Shiv Sena is not a party. Shiv Sena is an ideology. Shiv Sena is the embodiment of the sons of the soil. And Shiv Sena is the torch burning in the hearts of the oppressed; you cannot extinguish it. You absolutely cannot extinguish it.”The former Maharashtra chief minister also claimed that Shiv Sena has played a huge role for the BJP, as he said, “Had the Shiv Sena not been there, the BJP would have never seen the inside of the BMC or mantralaya,” news agency PTI reported.The response comes as the party chief’s first response after his defeat in the Mumbai civic body polls. BJP emerged as the largest party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).Dismissing the ethics of the BJP’s victory in the civic polls, Thackeray further added that “money power was used for the first time during the civic polls in the city,” and claimed that, “The Opposition faced several hurdles, such as flawed electoral rolls, and the result would have been even more different had the Sena (UBT) not identified dual voters.”He also expressed optimism in Shiv Sena’s role in the civic body, saying, “The BMC results may not be as per what the party desired, but the Opposition is a strong force in the civic body,” and claimed that the BJP “wants to swallow Mumbai.”“We have to start afresh,” he said, adding that the Sena was born not for power but for fighting for the rights of Marathi manoos.The BJP won 89 out of the 227 seats in the January 15 polls, ending the Thackerays’ decades-long control over India’s richest civic body.He accused the BJP of attempting to impose non-Marathi culture on Maharashtra and urged everyone to use “Jai Maharashtra” as a common greeting.
