No truck with AIMIM, says Shiv Sena

‘Owaisi’s offer to be part of MVA govt. a BJP ploy’

Rejecting the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)’s offer to be part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition to form a broad anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front, the Shiv Sena on Sunday alleged that the AIMIM’s offer was part of a BJP ploy to discredit the Sena’s ‘Hindutva’ credentials.  

Following a meeting of the Sena leadership and office-bearers at Mumbai’s Sena Bhavan on Sunday ahead of the party’s proposed voter outreach drive, Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had categorically refused to let the party have any truck with the Hyderabad-based party.

“Who asked the AIMIM for their free offer? It is part of a ploy on part of the BJP to defame the Sena over its ‘Hindutva credentials’. The Chief Minister has said that the AIMIM is hand in glove with the BJP, which has directed the AIMIM to mislead the people and raise question marks on the Sena’s ‘Hindutva’,” Mr. Raut said.

The Sena has bitterly criticised Mr. Owaisi’s campaign during the Uttar Pradesh election, stating that the AIMIM was nothing but a “behind-the-scenes facilitator” of the BJP.

AIMIM’s State president and Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel had offered to join hands with the Congress and the NCP, as well as its own estranged ally – the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) – to keep the BJP at bay in Maharashtra. Despite reservations on allying with the Sena, Mr. Jaleel nonetheless had said that he would be open for talks with Mr. Thackeray himself.

The Sena shares power with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the ruling MVA coalition.

Ever since its alliance with these two ideologically opposed parties in a bid to keep its erstwhile ally - the BJP - out of power in Maharashtra after the 2019 Assembly election, the Shiv Sena’s relationship with ‘Hindutva’ and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been ambivalent, with the BJP losing no chance to criticise Mr. Thackeray’s party of having forsaken ‘Hindutva’ ideals.