Mumbai: Terming the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv
Sena as 'fascist', Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj
Chavan on Thursday said the party would lose relevance after the
February 16 Mumbai municipal corporation elections.
"After the BMC election results, Sena will become
irrelevant," Chavan said, expressing confidence that the
Congress-NCP alliance will storm back to power in India's
richest civic body, whose budget, he said, was larger than the
individual budget of 17 states.
"Sena is a fascist party and I think the difficulty that
the fascist elements bring into the body politics of India and
Maharashtra are there for all to see," Chavan said in an
interaction with journalists at his official residence
'Varsha' in south Mumbai.
In 2007, Congress and NCP came very close to forming an
alliance, Chavan said. "They settled on a seat-sharing number
but finally disagreed on one seat. More likely, someone or the
other from either side didn't want the alliance," he said.
"This time, I had a discussion with senior leadership of
NCP. The numbers clearly favoured us. The division of secular
votes allowed Shiv Sena-BJP to rule the Mumbai civic body. We
took a very conscious decision that we must avoid division of
secular votes to oust Sena-BJP from power in Mumbai civic
body," he said.
"The leaderhip of NCP agreed and I must thank Sharad
Pawar who made sure that we don't bicker on one or two seats,"
Chavan said. "People (from Congress and NCP) have sensed that
power is within their grasp," he said, claiming "we are poised
to win the BMC election."
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 09, 2012, 22:33