“Shiv Sena will campaign for the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti candidate Shubham Shelke in the Belagavi Lok Sabha bypoll,” Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said in Belagavi on Wednesday.
“The victory of Shubham Shelke is clear. He will win by a huge margin,’’ he told journalists.
He said: “The honour of the Marathi speaker would protect the MES party and its candidate. It will help us gain an edge. We have not fielded our own candidate as we wanted to support the MES.’’
He accused the Karnataka government of committing atrocities on linguistic minorities — Marathi speakers.
He said that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had failed on all grounds. He accused the government of mismanaging COVID-19. “It has restricted free flow of vaccines to the States. It has a monopoly over the supply of drugs and vaccines. Instead of supplying enough vaccines to States that need them, it is accusing us of politicising the issue,” he said.
He said that the people were tired of the BJP and they would teach it a fitting lesson at the right time. “The Belagavi bypolls would be a pointer towards it,’’ he said.
Later, in the evening, he addressed a campaign meeting in favour of Mr. Shelke, also a Maratha leader.