Shiv Sena flays its ally, praises Congress for shaking up Gujarat model'

Mumbai: Talking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after its not-so-spectacular win in the Gujarat elections, whose results were declared on Monday, Shiv Sena on Tuesday said that its ally’s so-called ‘Gujarat model’ was shaken. Questioning the success of the BJP in Gujarat, the Sena said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to play the ‘Gujarati pride’ card at the last moment to win the polls. The Sena did not forget to applaud the Congress, which secured 77 seats this time and provided a close contest to the BJP. In the Gujarat polls, the BJP got 99 seats as against the expected 150.

“The Prime Minister also finally played Gujarati asmita card. The BJP was voted to power in 99 seats on the slogan ‘Apno Manoos’ (our man). However, the Rahul-Hardik duo won 77 seats. The monkeys (which Congress president Raul Gandhi and Patidar leader Hardik Patel were referred to derisively during the campaign by some) have sent an alert by slapping the lion. The results are big blow to the powers that be. The Gujarat model has been shaken and we hope that it will not collapse in 2019,” The Sena said in the party mouthpiece Saamana. The Sena had contested 53 seats in Gujarat but won none.

The Sena asked if the BJP’s Gujarat victory was actually a win and said that the real credit should go to Mr Gandhi. “It is important that the Congress emerged as a strong Opposition party. It was claimed that the BJP would not come down by a single seat. But it could not even touch 100. A one-line description of the election results could be that the strong winds have become weak,” the Sena said. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had also questioned the exit polls that had given more seats to BJP than it managed to get in reality.