Mumbai : Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan accused the ‘Mahayuti’ (grand alliance) of engaging in communal politics to grab power.
“Spreading hatred and communalising politics to grab power is BJP’s old game. They have been doing this for a long time,” Chavan said here at the state party headquarters on Wednesday. He was addressing a press conference after induction of four independent MLAs, who had been allied members of the ruling combine, into the party.
While replying to a question on the ‘love jihad’ issue, Chavan said, “Communal politics flourishes only after spreading hatred. So, those who want to engage in that are talking about it.” When he was asked to comment on a Union leader’s programme in Mumbai to address the issues of the minority community, Chavan said, “This is their double track policy. They are the ones who spread hatred and then they want to project themselves as saviors.”
He said the masses would support ‘lokshahi’ (democracy) and not ‘thokshahi’ (dictatorship) and that the Congress believed in peace and the well-being of everybody.
Four independent MLAs Jaykumar Gore, Vasant Chavan, Shirish Chaudhary and Suresh Jethlia, who had defeated NCP candidates in 2009, joined Congress party in the presence of state unit chief Manikrao Thakre and Chavan before the press conference.
Chief Minister welcomed them into the Congress and expressed confidence that the Congress-led alliance would win the fourth consecutive term.
Chavan and Thakre said that they will be fielded from the same constituencies in the coming elections.
To the question whether Congress would get these seats which are in the ally NCP’s quota, Thakre said it would not be a problem.
Both Chavan and Thakre said there was much enthusiasm in the party to fight the Assembly polls.
“After the Lok Sabha debacle, a lot of introspection was done and we are facing the Assembly polls with a lot of confidence. People are disappointed with the 100-day-old Modi government and our development work in Maharashtra and the UPA’s ten-year regime will stand us in good stead,” Chavan said.
On the stalemate over seat-sharing talks with NCP, Chavan only said, “Talks are underway.”
Thakre said more political leaders were likely to join the Congress in the coming days.
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Merge NCP in Congress, Kadam advises Pawar
Senior Congress leader Patangrao Kadam reitera-ted that it was high time that Sharad Pawar merged the NCP in the Congress.
“I am giving the advice in good faith and I have the authority to do so. Instead of an alliance with us and putting up independent candidates against us, it is better to merge the party with Congress,” Kadam said.
Thakre, however, was quick to describe Kadam’s views as personal and not that of the Congress.
Kadam had lost to an independent candidate, Prithviraj Deshmukh, in 1995. Deshmukh later joined the NCP.
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