Shiv Sena and BJP at loggerheads; Gholap lambasts BJP

Shiv Sena and BJP at loggerheads; Gholap lambasts BJP
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NASHIK, OCT 2: The Shat Pratishat campaign of the BJP and the recent victory of the Shiv Sena in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation have prompted leaders of both the parties to mobilise their cadres to win elections without mutual help.

While BJP's Maharashtra president Pandurang Phundkar, who was in Nashik district on Saturday, has advised his party-workers to ensure the victory of the party in future polls ``without crutches'', former social welfare minister and currently an MLA from Deolali, Baban Gholap, has advocated severing of links with the BJP.

Phundkar had addressed a meeting at Trimbakeshwar, where he asked BJP workers to get ready for the polls and ensure the party did not require any crutches to come to power. He had urged them to reach out to the masses for the purpose and not wait for splits in other parties for gaining political success.

Close on the heels of the BJP meeting, the Shiv Sena organised a meeting yesterday. The meeting was addressed by Gholap, who launched a scathing attack against the BJP for its Shat Pratishat BJP campaign.

Gholap said that the Sena had played a major role in BJP's political success in the State. He said that BJP was not a mitra paksha but a shatru paksha and a party of hypocrites. He said that the BJP's reach was so poor that it could not find a candidate for the Zilla Parishad bypoll in the Peth-Harsul area of Nashik.

He said that BJP leaders had become arrogant because of political success. He condemned the incident in Akola, where some BJP men had burnt the effigy of Bal Thackeray and said that Sena workers would not sit quiet. He pointed out that despite a smear campaign, the Sena had emerged victorious in the Kalyan-Dombivli civic polls.

Gholap announced that the Sena would open 301 new Shakhas in the rural areas of Nashik district to counter the BJP's Shat Pratishat campaign. He said that in the forthcoming civic polls in Nashik, the Sena would go alone, without any alliance with the BJP.