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Poll outcome would’ve been different had Uddhav and Raj had toured more extensively: Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut also writes in 'Saamana' that the ‘BJP has created such a situation that the Opposition begins to question why it should even contest’ and that ‘people are ready to become fools’.
Sanjay Raut said the Opposition lacked not will but conditions to fight, alleging money power, defections and early preparations by the BJP skewed the local body polls. (File Photo)
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said the results of the recent local body elections would have been different if Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray had toured the state more extensively.
In his weekly column in Saamana, Raut wrote that there is a public sentiment that had “Uddhav and Raj travelled across Maharashtra during the campaign, the figures would certainly have changed”.
The BJP and its allies won a majority of municipal councils, corporations and zilla parishads. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said the Opposition lacked the “will to fight”. Raut countered this, writing, “It is not entirely correct to say there is no will. The BJP has created such a situation that the Opposition begins to question why it should even contest.”
Raut alleged the use of money power and defections. “Candidates are picked up before elections or bought after winning. In this atmosphere, how does one fight?” he wrote. He also claimed the BJP was preparing early for 2029 and that “a budget of Rs 25,000 crore has already been fixed and it will increase”.
At the same time, Raut acknowledged that elections now require aggressive mobilisation. “Those who believe politics is about capturing power must fight elections like a war,” he wrote. “Only leadership that clashes sword with sword will survive in Maharashtra.”
Referring to a zilla parishad contest in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, he said a “simple folk artist” defeated a wealthy candidate aligned with Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
“Elections should not be won only on money power,” he wrote.
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Raut credited the BJP’s booth-level network, strengthened under leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, for its electoral success but added that “politics has been commercialised”.
Raut ended the column on a sharp note, “People are being made fools, and they are ready to become fools.”
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