Don’t Need Poster Boy to Fight Polls: Sena Ahead of Shah’s Visit

Amit Shah is slated to meet Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday as a part of the ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ campaign.

Shiv Sena Chief Amit Shah and BJP chief Uddhav Thackeray

(Photo altered by The Quint)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit shah is visiting all the NDA allies across the country as a part of ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ campaign. Interestingly, he is slated to meet Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at ‘Matoshree’, the latter’s residence, on Wednesday, 6 June.

The news made headlines, considering the Sena being BJP’s bickering ally in the state and the party deciding to snap ties with the BJP in the 2019 elections.

Ahead of the visit, Shiv Sena’s party mouthpiece Saamna published an editorial slamming Shah’s campaign and reasserting the decision of going solo in 2019.

While sarcastically stating that Shah’s target of securing 350 seats in the 2019 elections was commendable, the editorial said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a “world tour” and Shah is currently “touring across India”.

What exactly is he (Shah) planning to achieve by meeting NDA allies? Why the meetings now, especially after so many bypoll debacles? Shiv Sena will fight the 2019 elections solo anyway. The Shiv Sena does not need a ‘poster boy’ to contest elections. 

Excerpt from Saamna editorial

Further stating that the Sena showcased its power in the recently concluded bypolls in Palghar, the editorial slammed the BJP for ugly poster wars and said that Shah’s campaign was a political gimmick for the 2019 elections.

The BJP has pre-decided “business calculations” as to when to make allies and when to snap ties. Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh has snapped ties with the BJP. Will Amit Shah bother to go and meet him as a part of this campaign?

Excerpt from Saamna editorial

Accusing the BJP of playing dirty politics in Bihar under the wings of the Janata Dal; United (JDU), the editorial stated that cracks have already started developing in the alliance in Bihar.

The JDU and BJP formed the government in Bihar but their honeymoon seems to have ended. While KC Tyagi has said in the past that the BJP does not care for its ‘friends’, Nitish Kumar too has started questioning the benefits of demonetisation.

Excerpt from Saamna editorial

The editorial states that while winds of change have started blowing in Rajasthan ahead of the elections in the state later this year, Maharashtra too will overthrow the government in 2019.

Further slamming the government over rise in fuel prices and the simmering farmers’ agitation across the country, the editorial said that Centre should have used all means possible to address to these issues, as they did in the recent bypolls.

The Palghar bypolls were won by<i>“Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed”, </i>(to achieve something either by acceptance (Saam), or by bribery or corruption (Daam), or by punishment (Dand) or by division (Bhed) and the same policy is being applied to silence the agitating farmers.

Excerpt from Saamna editorial

(With inputs from Saamna)