Sena-BJP Tension Clouds Maha CM’s ‘Son Belt’: Dombivli BJP ‘Won’t Work with MP Shrikant Shinde’, He Slams ‘Selfish Politics’

A day after News18 reported that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top leadership has expressed its displeasure to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde regarding five cabinet ministers from his Shiv Sena, Thane and Kalyan Lok Sabha seats have become another bone of contention.

The BJP leadership is not happy with the performance and working style of the five cabinet ministers and have asked Shinde to look into this issue before cabinet expansion.

THE DOMBIVLI INCIDENT

An incident in Dombivli, a small town in Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency, has led to tension between these two parties.

In Dombivli, the wife of a policeman levelled allegations of molestation against local BJP leader Nandu Joshi. After the police registered a case against Joshi, the local BJP unit passed a resolution against Shinde’s son and MP Shrikant that they would not cooperate with him for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The local Shiv Sena is of the opinion that the BJP did this deliberately to settle scores.

Shrikant Shinde, who is on Kashmir tour with CM Eknath Shinde, immediately sent a video message, in which he criticised the BJP leaders for engaging in “selfish politics”.

“Some leaders in Dombivli are resorting to selfish politics by creating trouble in the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance over trivial issues. I am not eyeing any post. The candidate for Lok Sabha will be decided by senior leaders from the two parties. Even if I am not given candidature, I will campaign for whoever has got the ticket,” Shrikant said, in a video statement.

He further added: “Our aim is to get the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government re-elected at the Centre. If anybody is opposed to what we are doing and hence disrupting the alliance, I am willing to resign as an MP.”

THE REACTIONS

Sanjay Kelkar, BJP MLA from Thane, added fuel to the fire by taking a dig at CM Shinde and his son in the official programmes of the BJP’s Thane unit.

“The entire Thane and Palghar districts are a stronghold of the BJP. Many from our district, including our allies, have won since 2014 because of the BJP wave. There is no party other than the BJP which can get elected here due to the groundwork done by our workers. Not just Thane and Kalyan, the entire Thane and Palghar districts belong to us. When people start making claim over seats in Thane, they are under the misconception that they are the ones working to get PM Modi re-elected, but they have failed to understand that BJP workers have been taking the initiatives of Modi government to the people,” he said.

According to a senior leader of the Shiv Sena, “top leaders of the Shiv Sena and BJP are working in tandem and that’s the most important thing”. “We should concentrate on the constituencies and how we can do good work there, instead of making political statements,” said Kelkar.

If the top leadership of both parties don’t handle the tension between the Shiv Sena and BJP in Shinde’s home turf, things may worsen for both the parties ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. And the BJP top leadership doesn’t want to lose a single seat from Maharashtra because of local politics.