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Mumbai: Ahead of the elections to the Maharashtra civic body polls on January 15, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in an exclusive conversation with Republic TV, downplayed the local alliances where the Shiv Sena and the BJP are not contesting together, saying that it is only a local body election fought by party workers and their agenda has always been on “development.”

“This is a local body election of the workers. There have been friendly elections. Even in corporation elections, BJP and Shiv Sena are contesting together. In some places, due to local calculations, the alliance could not happen. Our agenda has always been development,” Shinde said, highlighting that these local fights wont impact the unity of the alliance in any way. The BJP, Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is in power in the Maharashtra government.

BJP Alliance With Congress

Shinde said that he was disturbed by the alliance formed by local party workers with the Congress, mentioning that such a tactical arrangement is against their party's ideology.

“I spoke to Devendra Fadnavis regarding the alliance with Congress and clearly told him that such an alliance is against our ideology. We will not compromise with Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology,” the Deputy CM said.

Shinde seemed to dodge the question on his alliance partner Ajit Pawar's controversial statement on the Rs 70,000 crore scam, saying, "Only he knows why he made that statement."

BJP-Shiv Sena Ideologically Tied

Highlighting the strong and natural ties between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, Shinde pointed out that the history of their partnership goes back to the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani.

Hitting out at Uddhav Thackeray, his former party colleague, before he split the party a few years back and joined hands with the BJP, Shinde said, “When attempts were made to abandon and break our ideology, we decided to part ways.”

Addressing the allegations of corruption in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Shinde said that he will work towards removing potholes from the streets of Mumbai and assured that the city will be “pot-hole-free” in a year. Slamming the Maha Vikas Aghadi, he reasoned that they should have ensured the completion of the road construction work. 

Making Mumbai Pot-Hole Free

“Shiv Sena and BJP are together in the BMC and I am confident that the Mayor will be from the Mahayuti. We will work on the issues of potholes. People have lost their lives due to potholes and questions must be asked to those who were running the corportation. When I became the Chief Minister, I initiated concrete roads for people. In the next one year, Mumbai will be pothole free. It was their responsibility to complete the work,” the Deputy Chief Minister said. 

“All pending cases of corruption, including the Mithi River Project, will be investigated,” he assured.

Eknath Shinde also revealed his goal to bring back Mumbaikars to the city, he said, “Many Mumbaikars have left the city and moved to other cities. We will bring our Mumbaikars back to Mumbai. All pending projects will be completed.”

Marathi Manoos Must Be Respected

Speaking on the oft-debated and sensitive Maratha reservation issue which has been a thorn for the ruling coalition, Shinde said, “They should stop playing with the emotions of the Marathi Manoos. People will vote for development. The Marathi Manoos must be respected.”

On attacks against non-Marathi speaking people in the state, some of them by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), he said, "People from all communities have been living here for years. But not speaking Marathi does not justify violence. Our culture must be preserved. Language should not be politicised. Marathi should be respected, but Hindi should not be disrespected."

Thackeray's ‘False Affection’ 

Shinde hit out at the Thackeray cousins for coming together ahead of the Mumbai civic body polls, labelling their unity as “false affection” and people are not interested in such opportunistic political alliances.

“I do not pay attention to what others say. I only focus on work. It does not matter who is allying with whom. People want development and are not interested in political alliances. This is false affection, they are scared,” he said.

As Maharashtra readies itself for the January 15 local body elections, political observants are curious to find out how the different alliance formulations will turn out at the local levels, as these results will indicate how much foothold, each of the alliance partners command at the grassroots.