MPs allotted Oppn seats, Sena likens BJP to Muhammad Ghori

IMAGE: Shiv Sena leaders Sanjay Raut, Arvind Sawant and others hold a protest near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue, demanding the government to declare unseasonal rains in Maharashtra as natural calamity, on the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi, on Monday. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

The Shiv Sena on Tuesday likened its one-time ally Bharatiya Janata Party to 13th century invader Muhammad Ghori who killed Prithviraj Chauhan despite the legendary king sparing his life several times.

In a hard-hitting editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, the Sena said it would 'uproot' the BJP as the latter had dared to 'challenge us', claiming the ruling party's 'leaders were kids' when the Sena's support helped form the National Democratic Alliance.

The two parties, which fought assembly polls together in Maharashtra and came up with 161 seats jointly in the 288-member House, fell out on the sharing of the chief minister's post and have since been attacking each other.

The Sena is in talks with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party currently to form a non-BJP government in the Maharashtra.

In the editorial, the Sena said, 'Muhammad of Ghor, said to have laid the foundation of Islamic rule in India, fought several battles with Hindu king Prithviraj Chauhan and the latter always spared him (after defeat). But when the invader won a battle, he killed Prihtviraj Chauhan.'

'Even in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has spared such ungrateful people several times and now they are trying to back-stab us,' the editorial said, without mentioning the BJP by name.

The editorial also lashed out at Sena being allotted seats on the opposition side in both houses of Parliament, as announced by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday.

Joshi had said the decision was made as the Sena's minister -- Arvind Sawant -- had resigned from the Union government and the party was 'working out' an alliance with the Congress and the NCP to form the government in Maharashtra.

'Who decided our sitting arrangement when there was no meeting of the NDA held for the same? Earlier, Lal Krishna Advani was the chief of the NDA and George Fernandes was its convener. Who is the chief and convener of the NDA today?' the Sena asked in the editorial.

It also asked if other constituents of the NDA were informed before the Sena was shown the door, claiming such decisions were earlier taken after all parties arrived at a consensus.

The party pointed out that the date chosen to move the Sena to the opposition benches coincided with the seventh death anniversary of party founder Bal Thackeray (November 17).

'This haste will result in some serious accident for sure,' the editorial warned.

'It is the beginning of the end of politics of arrogance. We promise you we will uproot you one day as you have challenged us. The heads of the party (BJP) today would have been kids when the Sena supported the BJP to form the National Democratic Alliance,' it said.

The tirade continued with the editorial questioning whether the BJP had sought permission from the NDA before allying with Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir earlier or with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United, despite it being well known that the Bihar chief minister had severely criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Meanwhile, rejecting Shiv Sena's criticism that he had shifted their MPs to the opposition benches, Joshi, "We did not make them sit in the Opposition, they did it themselves."