Ashish Shelar: Shiv Sena is a sinking ship, Marathi manoos will abandon it

Ashish Shelar has shored up BJPs Mumbai presence PicRane AshishWhen the 25yearold alliance between the Shiv Sena and the BJP came to an acrimonious end it was a given that the two parties would not mince words However the war of words seems to be taking a direction of its own now First the BJP accused Shiv Sena of being a party of extortionists the Sena immediately responded by calling BJP a party of goons Now the latest to join the bandwagon is BJP Mumbai president Ashish Shelar who said the Sena is a sinking ship that is being abandoned by the Marathi manoos He also sheds light on what they feel are dynasty politics Excerpts from a chatDespite the PMs insistence that the BJP is not about dynasty politics the BJPs list suggests otherwise Children of leaders and wives of sitting corporators have been given ticketsBy dynasty politics we mean party ownership of one family like the NCP Congress and Sena where you have to please one person to get a ticket BJP is the only party without a family controlling it Also while giving tickets we didnt see relationships we saw the candidates work for the party And just because they are children of prominent leaders we cannot deny them a ticket This is not dynasty politicsYou have been a Sena ally in the BMC since 1999 Why hasnt the topic of corruption been raised before Wont people think the Sena alone is not responsible for corruptionIts not just now that we have made corruption in the BMC an issue It was our party that spoke about corruption in the auctioning of Crawford Market or when the BMC was buying tablets for civic schools at higher prices We brought all these issues to light But since Modi is at the Centre and CM Fadnavis in the state has adopted a zero tolerance policy for corruption we want to replicate it in the BMC Also please note that we have not said the Sena is directly responsible for corruption We have asked the administration but it seems they have decided to take on the responsibility for scams and answer on the administrations behalf I ask a question to the commissioner I get a reply from the standing committee chairman This says a lotUddhav Thackeray has said the BJP is a party of goons and once they win the BMC polls they will quit the state government allianceI have already said the Shiv Sena is a party of extortionists From the lower level workers right up to the contractors in the BMC all have a nexus with the Sena corporators No one can beat them in this In our list see how many people have criminal records and then compare it with the Senas list Also about breaking the alliance Fadnavis will take an appropriate decision when the time comesIn the runup to the polls more than 15 sitting Sena corporators and senior functionaries have defected to the BJP and you have promised tickets to everyone Is this because BJP has a dearth of candidatesThis question is more apt for the Sena as they have inducted longterm BJP functionaries and twoterm corporators like Harshad Desai and Mangal Bhanushali The Sena hasnt even left our ward level leaders Moreover because we give tickets democratically more and more people are joining us We have received 2017 applications for the 227 seats so where is the dearthThe Sena is trying to eat into the BJPs Gujarati vote bank which is angry over demonetisation by inducting Gujarati leaders Does this show that they are nervous or will these inductions work against youOf course they are nervous Shiv Sena is a sinking ship and they have realised this Thats why they have made frantic attempts to bring everyone on to their side They have used the Marathi issue and exploited the Marathi voters and people have woken up to this Thats why so many Marathi corporators and leaders have left them and come to us We have a clear vision of development that we want to implementIs the alliance break just a poll strategy and will we see a Kalyan Municipal Corporationlike post election tieupThere is no chance We are confident of wining the BMC election The next mayor will be from the BJP Citizens want change and are tired of the poor services and thats why they will choose us Our vision of development and turning Mumbai into a smart city will bring us to power