Mumbai: City Congress President Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday came down heavily on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for equating Mumbai with Patna, saying that defeat in Bihar assembly elections is still haunting the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Stating that the Maharashtra chief minister's comments had hurt feelings of people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Nirupam said BJP had always targeted the two states to conceal their failure and alleged that the BJP had not yet come out from the Bihar assembly poll defeat.
"BJP and Shiv Sena have failed to deliver despite being in power for 20 years. They are trying to conceal their failure of governance in Mumbai municipal corporation by insulting Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
"They are contesting this election against each other, and hence to divert attention and seek votes they are resorting to cheap politics", he said.
"Earlier too Fadnavis had questioned Bihar’s DNA. He has “bati choka” with North Indians only for the sake of votes", Nirupam said.
"They got the better reply in Bihar assembly polls in the form of defeat, Mumbaikar should also give them the same in the upcoming BMC elections", he said.
"We are exploring legal options for action against chief minister’s comments as seeking votes in the name of region, caste and religion is a violation of the Supreme Court order", he said.
He also said the corrupt functioning of the civic body cannot be possible without BJP’s support to Sena, alleging separate contests are “match fixing”.
"BJP calls the Sena a party of extortionists and Sena calls BJP a party of goons, though both parties are ruling the state and centre. BJP President Amit Shah said the Sena-BJP fight is a friendly fight for civic polls, while Minister Chandrakant Patil has said both parties will come together after the election", Nirupam said.
Also slamming the SHiv Sena, Nirupam said, "Sena ministers' resignation talks are mere eyewash. The party has no guts to pull down its ministers from the government."
Yesterday while addressing a rally in Mumbai,Fadnavis accused the Uddhav Thackeray's Party of destroying the Mumbai and said Mumbai has become Patna just because of Sena.
[Mohammed Omair is a student of journalism, currently doing internship.]