Bhayandar: Politics makes strange ‘bedfellows’. After a year full of throwing verbal brickbats using street language-calling each other names, hitting below the belt and displaying how low politicians can stoop to embarrass each other, Shiv Sena legislator Pratap Sarnaik and his BJP counterpart
Narendra Mehta finally buried their differences and vowed to put up a united front to ensure the victory of the saffron alliance candidate and sitting parliamentarian, Rajan Vichare (Shiv Sena) from the Thane LS (25) seat.
At the BJP-Sena joint press conference held in Mira Road on Sunday afternoon, Mehta expressed confidence that Vichare will not only register a handsome victory but will also lead with a comfortable margin of at least one lakh votes from the twin-city.
Parts of the Thane Lok Sabha constituency the Mira-Bhayandar (145) and Ovala-Majiwada (146) assembly segments are represented by Narendra Mehta (BJP) and Pratap Sarnaik (Shiv Sena) respectively. While the BJP is at the helm of affairs in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation, the Shiv Sena has been sulking in the Opposition after both the parties bitterly parted ways on the eve of civic election held in August 2017.
Even as the local leadership of both the parties were at loggerheads cursing each other on trivial issues, the alliance is a cruel signal to a large section of the local party workers and supporters at the grassroots level who are seldom taken into confidence, and are expected to defend the decisions of the leaders — who switch sides, depending on the electoral fortunes.
