PUDUCHERRY TACTIC WILL NOT WORK IN MAHA, SAYS SHIV SENA

MUMBAI: Referring to the collapse of the Congress government in Puducherry, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana on Wednesday said that the same tactic will not work in Maharashtra. It added that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) desire to topple the Sena-led government in the state will remain a dream.

“Some BJP leaders have said that now that the Puducherry government has been toppled, the Maharashtra government will collapse in March-april. Similar advertisements were made when the Madhya Pradesh government collapsed [in March 2020] and after the Bihar assembly polls. In Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry, the Congress was in power. In Maharashtra it is Shiv Sena, therefore, nobody should even think about toppling the government... The results in Maharashtra are the will of the people and will not change,” the editorial said.

The editorial slammed the BJP and Union government over the toppling of governments, including in Madhya Pradesh. It said that winning over legislators by luring them and using central agencies has become an act of “bravery”. It said that turncoats are being given the “red carpet”, adding that such an atmosphere is detrimental for democracy.

In a veiled attack on Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the editorial said that those who disrupt the state government’s work at the behest of the Centre must remember that they can be “thrown away” after use. “Governors are used like curry leaves in food for tempering. [Former Puducherry lieutenant Governor] Kiran Bedi was thrown away like curry leaves after use. The one tempering food in Maharashtra should understand this,” the editorial said.

No immediate response was available from the BJP.