MUMBAI: Temperatures between alliance partners BJP and Shiv Sena are likely to soar as Kirit Somaiya plans to set aflame the Ravan of “mafia rule” in the BMC in Mulund to mark Dussehra. At the annual rally of the Shiv Sena to be held in Shivaji Park on Tuesday, party presidentUddhav Thackeray’s speech is likely to take the BJP to task on a slew of issues, said sources.
The speech is expected to set the tone for party preparations for next year’s election to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where the Shiv Sena has held a commanding poisition for several terms. Thackeray is likely to dwell on the Centre’s decision to go for the recent surgical strikes across the LoC in J&K and the Congress-AAP demand for proof of the operation by the army. The Shiv Sena leader may offer his views on the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) drive against the BMC engineers over potholes in the city.
Thackeray is likely to reiterate the party opposition to Pakistani actors in Hindi films. He may well have to spell out party policy on Maratha quota and the morchas across the state since July. A recent cartoon in Saamna that poured ridicule on the Maratha silent morchas had angered the community. Soon, Thackeray offered an unconditional apology. Saamna and its executive editor, Sanjay Raut, followed suit. Sainiks expect Thackeray to speak on the matter.
Somaiya, in a tweet on Monday, said the “Ravan of BMC Mahapalika Mafia” would be burnt in Mulund on Tuesday at 5 pm. Somaiya’s event is of a piece with the BJP gameplan ahead of the BMC election, which is to hold the Shiv Sena responsible for the downhill trundle of the country’s richest municipal corporation, said political experts. Somaiya fired the first salvo against the Shiv Sena a couple of months ago when he alleged that the BMC was in the grip of a single family that had unleashed mafia rule in the corporation.
Last week, Somaiya said the BJP would go solo for the BMC election. “We will win the BMC hands down,” he said, adding that the BJP was ready to tie up with the much smaller Rashtriya Samaj Party, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and the RPI(A). Somaiya has been breathing fire against the Shiv Sena in recent months, amid reports that a sizeable section of the city BJP is not in favour of a pact with the Shiv Sena for the 2017 BMC polls.