Alliance shaken: Sena to go it alone in civic polls
13 Oct 2015
The Shiv Sena has decided to go it alone in the upcoming Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation election and not have any tie-up with the BJP, with which it shares power in the state and at the Centre.
The decision was taken on Monday night at a meeting of senior Sena leaders in Mumbai. The development comes after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis chided the Shiv Sena for bringing the state a bad name due to the protests against former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri's book launch in Mumbai.
Kalyan and Dombivali are satellite cities adjacent to Mumbai and the municipal corporation is currently run by the Sena-BJP alliance. Now, the Shiv Sena is all set to contest all 122 seats alone.
The KDMC elections are to be held on 1 November. Maharashtra BJP president Raosaheb Danve told PTI that the party had left the decision on the alliance to its local BJP unit in Kalyan.
''We are not going to impose anything on the local unit,'' he added.
The Shiv Sena opposed the launch of Kasuri's book Neither a Hawk, Nor a Dove: An Insider Account of Pakistan's Foreign Policy saying there should be no engagement with Pakistan as long as it supports terror attacks on Indian soil.
On Monday, Shiv Sena members threw black paint at former BJP adviser and columnist Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was the organiser of the event where Kasuri's book was launched (See: Six Shiv Sainiks held after ink attack on Kulkarni)
Fadnavis, disapproving of the Sena's protests, said last evening that it had brought disrepute to the state.
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