Shiv Sena calls BJP-AIMIM alliance, Congress hypocrisy shameful
Thackeray camp accused BJP of prioritizing electoral victory over ethics, recruiting corrupt leaders and criminals to win “at any cost.”
As Maharashtra gears up for elections across 29 municipal corporations, the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) has launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of abandoning its ideological foundations in a desperate pursuit of power. The critique, carried in the party’s mouthpiece Saamana, frames the BJP’s political manoeuvres as a “shameful display of hypocrisy,” pointing to its alliances with both the AIMIM and the Congress in recent local contests.
The editorial paints the BJP as a party whose primary guiding principle is no longer ideology but survival in power. It argued that the party’s Hindutva stance is merely a pretense used to achieve selfish political gain, claiming that without the authority that comes with power, the BJP would struggle to maintain its relevance.
Shiv Sena UBT singled out the BJP’s partnership with AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi as evidence of opportunistic politics. According to the editorial, the BJP has long relied on Owaisi’s party as a “hidden helper” to divide opposition votes in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra. In the context of Maharashtra, the arrival of Owaisi to give the ‘call to prayer’ (Azaan) is seen as a signal of the BJP’s election preparations. The editorial described the relationship between the two parties as a “romance behind the trees” that had now become visible to the public eye.
The critique highlighted specific municipal councils to illustrate the BJP’s approach. weaken the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction. The editorial described Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ attempts to distance the party from these alliances as mere damage control. While he ordered a “triple talaq” from these partnerships and promised disciplinary action, the Thackeray camp insisted that the harm to the BJP’s credibility was irreversible, stating that “reputation.
Shiv Sena UBT also criticized the BJP for secrecy in negotiations, alleging that most discussions regarding alliances were conducted behind closed doors until someone exposed them. This approach, the editorial suggested, undermines transparency and reflects a willingness to compromise principles for electoral advantage.
The editorial went further to attack the BJP’s absorption of leaders from other parties. Shiv Sena leaders into the BJP’s ranks. The piece argued that these recruits, many of whom are accused of corruption, are used as stand-ins for the BJP’s lack of capable homegrown leadership. According to Shiv Sena UBT, nearly 80 percent of the BJP’s MLAs, MPs, and corporators in Maharashtra are political “imports” from other parties, now publicly displaying loyalty to Hindutva for the sake of electoral convenience.
At the heart of the Thackeray camp’s criticism is the claim that the BJP has effectively abandoned ideology in favour of pragmatism. “By recruiting corrupt leaders and criminals to win elections, the BJP’s only true policy has become ‘winning at any cost,’” the editorial concluded, framing the party’s current strategies as opportunistic, morally compromised, and disconnected from the principles it once publicly espoused.
In essence, Shiv Sena UBT’s editorial portrays the BJP as a party increasingly willing to compromise its stated ideals, forming unlikely and ideologically contradictory alliances to secure electoral victory. The critique combines local electoral developments, historical patterns of strategic partnerships, and broader commentary on party ethics to argue that the BJP’s pursuit of power has come at the expense of credibility, moral authority, and political consistency. The attack is both a warning and a call to voters in Maharashtra, urging them to consider the consequences of a political strategy that prioritizes victory over principle.
This narrative from Shiv Sena UBT underscores the deepening political tensions in Maharashtra as municipal elections approach, reflecting both local rivalries and broader debates over the nature of governance, ideology, and political survival in Indian democracy.