Rejecting the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)’s offer to be part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition to form a broad anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front, the Shiv Sena on Sunday alleged that the AIMIM’s offer was part of a BJP ploy to discredit the Sena’s ‘Hindutva’ credentials.
Following a meeting of the Sena leadership and office-bearers at Mumbai’s Sena Bhavan on Sunday ahead of the party’s proposed voter outreach drive, Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had categorically refused to let the party have any truck with the Hyderabad-based party.
“Who asked the AIMIM for their free offer? It is part of a ploy on part of the BJP to defame the Sena over its ‘Hindutva credentials’. The Chief Minister has said that the AIMIM is hand in glove with the BJP, which has directed the AIMIM to mislead the people and raise question marks on the Sena’s ‘Hindutva’,” Mr. Raut said.
