Congress dares Shiv Sena to raze encroachments

Mumbai: Mocking the Shiv Sena over its leader Sanjay Raut’s statement that the state government is ‘on notice’, the Congress on Tuesday mocked the Shiv Sena saying that Uddhav Thackeray’s party had no ‘guts’ even to raze encroachments despite being in power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for two decades.

“The party which did not have guts to pull down illegal encroachments cannot dare to pull out of the state government. Shiv Sena is addicted to power. Both the Shiv Sena and BJP accuse each other of being corrupt. They are right and they will be rejected by people,” said Sachin Sawant, city Congress spokesperson.

Mr Raut had on Monday hinted of the Sena walking out of state government after the BMC elections, saying the Devendra Fadnavis government is on a “notice period”.

Last month, BJP’s alliance partner, the Shiv Sena, had announced to contest the upcoming elections solo at 10 municipal corporations and 25 zilla parishads. The 227-member BMC is going to polls on February 21 along with other municipal corporations. “When you call the other corrupt in the civic body, how can he be good elsewhere?” Mr Sawant asked.

Responding to a query on the Patidar quota stir in Gujarat, spearheaded by Hardik Patel, and the latter’s closed-door meeting with Uddhav Thackeray at his residence Matoshree, Mr Sawant said, “This is all drama at a time when there is nothing concrete to show on the development front in Mumbai.”

The Congress leader also criticised the BJP’s initiative wherein it has administered the “oath of transparency” to all the candidates contesting the civic polls. “Why should this (oath) be restricted only to corporators? Why not the ministers in the state government? They too should be asked to declare their assets and take oath of transparency,” Mr Sawant concluded.