Maharashtra Congress hints at solo run in local polls amid alliance tensions and language row

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has said he would not be surprised if the Congress decides to go solo in Mumbai and other civic body polls in the state likely to be held later this yearIn an interview with PTI Videos Chavan also targeted the Devendra Fadnavis government over law and order in the state following some incidents of workers of the Raj Thackerayled MNS assaulting people for not speaking in MarathiTo a question he said Congress partys stand is that our alliance is with our INDIA alliance partners which is the Shiv Sena UBT and NCP SP If they want to do a sub alliance with some other party likeminded party thats their businessBut if they want to make an alliance with people who are fundamentally opposed to the Congress ideology ideology of secularism ideology of what Ambedkar wrote in the Constitution then we will not accept that he addedChavan said when they a meeting in Delhi recently of the Congress over the local body elections in Mumbai and other places they placed their views before a committee which will take a stand on whether they will go in for an alliance with the INDIA bloc members or contest separatelyIn the past also although we had alliance for the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls we fought the local body election separately and I wouldnt be surprised if the Congress party body committee decides to go for Mumbai Pune Nagpur elections separately he saidOn Tuesday workers of the Raj Thackerayled Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS and other groups led a protest march in Mira Bhayander area of Thane near Mumbai to defend the Marathi asmita pride amid rising political heat following the attack on a shopkeeper for refusal to speak in MarathiAsked about the protest Chavan claimed iquestOne thing is very clear it is the central governments policy insisted by RSS they want one nationone language one nationone religion one nationone election This mindset comes from 1930s Germany Hitlers GermanyAnd they are still trying to impose this business he saidNow why people of Maharashtra rose against the central governments policy its because of imposition of Hindi language from Class 1 in schools he saidWe are not against Hindi language were against the imposition from Class 1 You started after Class 5 Class 6 as well Initially you cannot burden a child of six years with three different languages There are not enough teachers there are not enough textbooks and that will only dilute the command over English or the mother tongue he saidSo the entire population of Maharashtra in one voice protested against this imposition of Hindi the Congress leader saidAnd finally the chief minister and the state government realised that whatever the central government may want it will be difficult to implement the imposition of Hindi from Class one in Maharashtra so they took a backseat and the policy was scrapped he saidThe matter is over he addedNow some people want to celebrate and get political mileage out of it they are welcome to do it he said referring to a joint rally recently held by Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray and his cousin Raj Thackeray after the government withdraw the orders GRs on the introduction of Hindi in primary classesIf Shiv Sena two brothers come together to fight BMC Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election thats welcome Chavan saidTo a question on the Mira Bhayander incident Chavan said he cant understand why the protest is continuingThe government of Maharashtra has taken back the GR has accepted what people of Maharashtra wanted has accepted what Shivsena and MNS wanted he saidThey want to celebrate let them celebrate the celebration is over now but you cannot take law and order in your hands he saidYou cannot start beating up people who are not Marathi And then the issue that they cant speak Marathi or nothing No it cannot happen Chavan saidSo my request to the chief minister is the image of Maharashtra state is going out as a very weak indecisive government multiple party government nobody is listening to each other Now we had a MLA or a minister of Shinde Shiv Sena group defying the chief ministers orders So all this is a message that all is not well in Maharashtra which is a fact he claimedChavan further claimed CM Devendra Fadnavis was busy in saving his alliance and ministers were behaving whichever way they wantBut we will not tolerate anyone taking law and order in their own hands The CM must punish whether it is the incident in Mira Bhayander or at the national levelsa BJP MP has talked nonsense Home Minister Amit Shah should take action against that MP but he will not take it because hes playing his agenda Chavan claimedNotably BJPs Jharkhand Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey had in a post on X said To those beating Hindi speakers in Mumbai if you have the courage try beating Urdu speakers in Maharashtra Even a dog is a tiger in its own home Decide for yourself who is the dog and who is the tigerHis patak patak ke marenge will thrash you remarks 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