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Journalism of Courage
With Congress suffering an unexpected defeat in Haryana today, its alliance partner in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, today, sounded caution to Maha Vikas Aghadi while pressing its demand for appointing a chief ministerial candidate.
”There is a strong lesson to be learnt from the defeat of Congress in Haryana… The MVA and Congress should take a cue from it and declare a CM face,” Sanjay Raut, MP, Shiv Sena (UBT) told The Indian Express. ”Our party chief Uddhav Thackeray has also raised the same demand today,” he added.
The Sena has, for the past two months, been insisting that MVA announce a CM face. And even though it wants Uddhav to be the MVA CM face, the Sena is not openly saying so, and is promising support to any candidate declared as CM candidate. Sena’s alliance partners— Congress and NCP (SP) —have paid no heed to the demand. In fact, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said there was no tradition in Maharashtra of appointing a CM face.
Raut said it was crucial to strengthen the poll campaign by naming the prospective CM. “Don’t allow for confusion in voters’ minds. During LS elections, there was a choice between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi for the PM post. People of Maharashtra rejected Modi and favoured Rahul,” he said.
Raut, however, said, ”There is certainly some doubt about the integrity of the democratic process in Haryana. We support the Congress on this count.”
Referring to BJP’s defeat in Jammu and Kashmir, Raut said, “Despite abrogation of Article 370 by BJP, it failed to find favour with voters of Jammu and Kashmir. BJP should not jump with joy over Haryana victory. It should explain why it lost in J&K despite claiming to have done a lot there.”
On the other hand, elated by the party’s Haryana victory, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said it will boost the confidence of BJP rank and file in Maharashtra. ”After Rahul became the LoP, Haryana gave him the first guard of honour. After this, Maharashtra will give him a similar salutation,” Fadnavis said, minutes after it became clear that BJP had secured a hat-trick in Haryana.
