BJP talking about poll tie-ups because of UP defeat: Shiv Sena

Claiming that the results of the 2019 general elections will be starkly different from the post-2014 picture, the Shiv Sena on Monday said its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, was now talking about contesting polls together owing to its defeat in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls to the Lok Sabha. The Sena cannot be silenced so easily now, the party said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana.

“BJP chief Amit Shah equated Opposition parties to animals for their efforts to form a coalition to take on the BJP in 2019. But, during the UPA, some of these ‘animals’ were with the Congress and jumped into the BJP’s tent after seeing the Modi wave. One of them which recently left is the TDP. The Shiv Sena is not a caged tiger and it will continue to roar on state and national issues. It’s not possible to control the tiger now,” said the editorial.

It said the BJP chief should have spoken on issues such as corruption, continuing violence in Kashmir and on the recent violence amid protests by Dalits. “He didn’t speak on these. In 2014, all the ‘animals’ were swept away in the Modi flood. Similarly, national thoughts were swept away on BJP’s foundation day in 2018. It will be a completely different picture in 2019 but the BJP is still living in 2014’s golden time,” it added.

The editorial said the BJP doesn’t need allies and pointed out that Shah only made a passing reference about contesting the polls together with the Sena.