Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra is result of lust for power: Amit Shah

Amit Shah said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra (comprising Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress) is like an auto-rickshaw whose three wheels were pulling in different directions. The Union Home Minister was speaking after inaugurating a private medical college at Kankavli in Sindhudurg district.

File Photo (ANI)

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday (February 7, 2021) hit out at the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra and said that it is a result of the lust for power.

Shah said that the MVA government in Maharashtra (comprising Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress) is like an auto-rickshaw whose three wheels were pulling in different directions.

The Union Home Minister stated that ahead of the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not promise Shiv Sena - then its alliance partner - to share the chief minister's post. 

He said, "I don't make promises in closed rooms. Whatever I do, I do it openly. I don't do politics in closed rooms."

Amit Shah was speaking after inaugurating a private medical college at Kankavli in Sindhudurg district.

"This (MVA) is an unholy alliance and an outcome of betraying the people's mandate which was for a BJP-Shiv Sena government led by (BJP's) Devendra Fadnavis," Shah said. 

This is to be noted that the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP after the 2019 Assembly polls over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post with the saffron party. Subsequently, Shiv Sena formed the government after joining hands with NCP and Congress.

Thackeray had claimed that Amit Shah (the then BJP president), had assured at his Mumbai's 'Matoshree' bungalow that the CM's post would be shared by Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena, and the BJP reneged on the promise.

"It is being claimed that the BJP broke the promise," Shah said, adding his party honours the promises it makes.

"We don't speak white lies. We are the ones who honour commitments. In Bihar, we had said that even if the BJP gets more seats, Nitish Kumar will continue to be the CM," Shah stated.

Shah slammed Uddhav Thackeray and said that the Shiv Sena leader addressed poll rallies with him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

He said, "In the poll posters of Shiv Sena candidates, Modi's pictures were bigger than Thackeray's." 

"We sought votes for the BJP-Sena alliance led by Fadnavis. Why didn't you speak out then? You just garnered votes in Modi's name," Shah added. 


(With inputs from PTI news agency)