Taking a jibe at the Indian National Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday claimed that Congress is a state-sponsored opposition party that has been planted by the Shiv Sena in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The BJP reaction comes a day after Ravi Raja, senior Congress corporator and the Leader of Party (LoP) at BMC stated that Congress is keen on contesting the upcoming civic polls without forming an alliance with their Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ally - Shiv Sena.
"Congress wanting to contest the elections alone sounds like a joke now. They call themselves as the opposition but haven't raised their voices against the corruption of Sena in the past one year," Vinod Mishra, a senior BJP corporator and group leader of the party told FPJ.
He further mentioned, Congress had said the same thing before the management committee elections held during September and October this year but had withdrawn their candidate at the last moment.
"During the management committee elections, Congress had withdrawn its candidates 15 minutes prior to voting and had maintained a neutral stand. This clearly reflects their real agenda," Mishra added.
Gearing up for the 2022 civic polls, the BJP had launched the 'Mission BMC' initiative earlier this week to dislodge Shiv Sena. The party has also started door to door campaign at the ward level and have set up a target of visiting at least 100 houses a day.
Leaders in BJP believe that they have been able to reach out to more people amid the pandemic outbreak which has left the Congress confused regarding their vote bank.
"Mumbaikars are unhappy with the way how Sena-led government and municipality have dealt with the pandemic, now being their ally Congress has now become worried about their vote bank, for which they are now making such announcements of fighting the election alone," Mishra stated.
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