Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his visit to Maharashtra, was in a combative mood as he made some important statements. One thing which stood out in Shah’s speech is how he took down both BJP’s current ally – JD(U) and Nitish Kumar and former ally Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray as he thundered, “You took votes in PM Modi’s name.”
BJP, which is still seething from Sena Sena’s backstabbing, with the latter breaking the pre-poll alliance and joining hands with ideologically opposite NCP and INC to form the government in Maharashtra, saw senior leader Amit Shah take Uddhav Thackeray to the cleaners while also sending a message to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
Speaking after inaugurating a private medical college at Kankavli in Sindhudurg, Amit Shah stated that before the Maharashtra Assembly elections, Shiv Sena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray campaigned with him and PM Modi. He also claimed that in the posters of Shiv Sena candidates in the run-up to elections, PM Modi’s pictures were bigger than that of Uddhav Thackeray.
“We sought votes for the BJP-Sena led by Fadnavis, why didn’t you speak out that time? You just took votes in the name of Modiji,” said the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Anyone who has followed the Maharashtra elections closely will tell you that Shiv Sena quite literally piggybacked on the BJP’s bag and the clean and efficient image of former CM Devendra Fadnavis and PM Modi. In fact, while the BJP performed spectacularly and delivered a stupendous strike rate as it bagged 105 seats, it was the Sena which pulled the Mahayuti down by performing poorly and bagging only 57 seats.
The same was true for JD(U) in the recently concluded Bihar elections as a hugely unpopular Nitish Kumar was battling for his 15-year anti-incumbency and pinned all its hopes on the BJP and PM Modi’s charisma and his connect with the voters. Without BJP’s presence, JD(U) would have been decimated. Despite BJP scoring big in the Bihar elections and JD(U) performing poorly, the BJP didn’t break its pre-poll promise and made Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister of Bihar.
While Shiv Sena claims that the BJP had promised it the Chief Minister’s post on a rotation basis, Amit Shah has categorically denied such claims. “I don’t make promises in closed rooms. Whatever I do, I do it openly…I don’t do politics in closed rooms,” said Shah.
Amit Shah added, “We don’t speak white lies. We are the ones who honour commitments. In Bihar, we said if the NDA gets more seats, Nitish Kumar will continue to be CM.”
With just one statement, Amit Shah has hit out at the incumbent Chief Ministers of both Maharashtra and Bihar, namely Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena and Nitish Kumar of JD(U). He reminded them about how they bagged votes in the name of BJP’s hard work and PM Modi’s charisma.