Devendra Fadnavis. File photo
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Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said candidates from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), who are committed to the interests of their state, won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Mumbai by winning votes from minorities and non-Marathi and non-Hindi speakers, news agency PTI reported.
In the recently concluded 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Shiv Sena Party (UBT) won three of the national capital’s six seats, while the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the Indian National Congress Party won one constituency each.
The opposition’s victory was not due to the votes of Marathi speakers, ordinary Mumbai residents or the north Indians who have lived in the city for generations, Fadnavis said in his speech, reported PTI.
The opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) won with the votes of people who had started using Bal Thackeray’s ‘Janab’ instead of the more popular Hindu ‘Hridaysamrat’, a senior BJP leader claimed, news agency PTI reported.
Fadnavis also alleged that Uddhav Thackeray had stopped beginning his speeches with “my Hindu brothers” in the last six months in order to garner support from minorities, PTI reported.
He acknowledged that false claims made by the opposition during the Lok Sabha election campaign that the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to amend the constitution and abolish reservations had dealt a major blow to the ruling party. The Bharatiya Janata Party contested 28 of Maharashtra’s 48 parliamentary seats but won just nine, down from the 23 it won in the 2019 election.
“Elections have been announced for Mumbai Graduates constituency and we are sure to win again as we gave it to our erstwhile political ally (Shiv Sena) a few years back. Now is the time to take it back. Our candidate Kiran Shelal will win and prove that false allegations against the BJP will not hold water going forward,” Fadnavis was quoted as saying by PTI.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the first head of government to implement the Constitution across India. Earlier, the Constitution was not applicable in Jammu and Kashmir due to Article 370 of the Constitution. After the article (Article 370) was repealed, the Constitution is now applicable there too,” he claimed, reported PTI.
In Mumbai, the BJP got 2.6 million votes and the MVA candidate got 2.4 million, but “the vote calculation went in their favour and we (the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena) could win only two seats,” Fadnavis said, reported PTI.
“It is also a good sign that Aditya Thackeray’s Worli parliamentary constituency is leading his own candidate (in the South Mumbai Assembly constituency) by just 6,000 votes. This clearly marks the end of the Sena’s charisma and the BJP will make a breakthrough in the municipal elections,” the deputy chief minister said.
(With inputs from PTI)
