MUMBAI: Taking a dig at one-time ally
BJP, the Shiv Sena on Sunday said
Chhatrapati Shivaji
was “not confined to any caste or party”, but belongs to the whole of
Maharashtra.
The BJP had mounted a campaign seen by political observers as an effort to appropriate the legacy of the warrior king in a bid to upstage the Sena. “The BJP has been campaigning that it is the only party blessed by Shivaji Maharaj. Despite that, BJP candidate Udayanraje Bhosale lost the Satara Lok Sabha bypoll,” Sena Rajya Sabha MP
Sanjay Raut wrote in his weekly column ‘Rokhthok’ in party mouthpiece
Saamna
.
Bhosale, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, had quit the NCP and joined the BJP, but was trounced by the Sharad Pawar-led party’s Shriniwas Patil in the LS bypoll that were held along with the assembly elections in October.
It was the defeat of a person and not a legacy, the Sena article asserted. “Shivaji Maharaj taught us that Maharashtra does not tolerate arrogance and hypocrisy. Whenever people take oath in the name of Shivaji Maharaj but do not keep promises, and start thinking of themselves as rulers of the state, then it is a sign of their downfall,” Raut stated in his column.
The Sena leader also pointed out that the BJP has not even begin work on the Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial in the Arabian Sea.