BJP's alliance with Sena is emotional, that with NCP political: Devendra Fadnavis
Mumbai(PTI): Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said the BJP has an emotional alliance with the Shiv Sena and a political one with the Nationalist Congress Party. The Bharatiya Janata Party can welcome whoever is willing to join it but the "Congress-like thinking" was unacceptable, he said.
The BJP leader was speaking at the `MahaVijay 2024' workshop of party workers organised at Bhiwandi as part of preparations for the next year's Lok Sabha elections.
"Our tie-up with the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde is an emotional alliance. The BJP and Sena have been together for more than 25 years. Our alliance with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP is a political alliance," Fadnavis said.
"We may develop an emotional alliance with the NCP as well in the next 10-15 years," he added.
The Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena joined hands with the BJP last year to form a new government in Maharashtra, whereas an NCP rebel group led by Ajit Pawar joined the ruling alliance earlier this month.
Some people accused the BJP of being instrumental in breaking up the Shiv Sena and NCP, but it was the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena that "backstabbed" the BJP in 2019, Fadnavis said.
"We will welcome whoever wants to join the party, but there is no room for Congress-like thinking. Those who believe in appeasement will not be acceptable. AIMIM or Muslim League will have no place in the NDA," he said.
Fadnavis had formed a short-lived government with Ajit Pawar in 2019 after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena severed its decades-old alliance with the BJP over the chief minister's post.
Making a reference to those developments, Fadnavis said, "There are some who are wondering what exactly we are doing and why we are doing it. The way you got the answers of 2019 in 2023, you will get to know all that happened in 2023 by 2026."
Uddhav Thackeray first insisted on the chief minister's post before the 2019 elections but later settled for an extra Lok Sabha seat, Fadnavis claimed.
"But after the results of the 2019 Assembly elections, he sensed the number game and joined hands with NCP and Congress. We were caught unawares....he started talking about sharing the CM's post," Fadnavis added.
During the meeting between senior BJP leader Amit Shah and Uddhav Thackeray, he "rehearsed" the press briefing in the presence of both of them in Marathi and Hindi, and even in the presence of Thackeray's wife, Fadnavis claimed.
"Amit Shah has told me during those discussions that one should be ready to face insults in politics, but never tolerate treachery," he said.
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Death toll from Israeli strikes in northeast Lebanon rises from 8 to 24, Lebanese news agency says
Deir al-Balah, Nov 1: Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country's news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.
It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated last month.
Israel's military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah's military infrastructure.
Lebanon's state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country's northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.
Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.
