Hindutva is an important part of the core of Shiv Sena's ideology. Just like Maharashtra, Gujarat is progressive in education, health and other sectors but still a lot needs to be done
Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ally in Maharashtra, will contest over 50 seats in the first phase of Assembly elections in Gujarat, a top party leader said here on Thursday. It will contest mainly in Surat, Saurashtra and Kutch and will come out with a manifesto soon.
Party leader Anil Desai said that Gujarat elections are very important. Hindutva and development will be the main issues on which it will seek mandate of the people. "Hindutva is an important part of the core of Shiv Sena's ideology. Just like Maharashtra, Gujarat is progressive in education, health and other sectors but still a lot needs to be done," Desai told mediapersons here. He was non-committal on whether party president Uddav Thackeray will come to Gujarat for polling. However, he clarified that they are not in negotiations with any of the party or political formations for an alliance.
The party has, however, not finalised the seats it will contest in the first phase. It also has plans to contest in the second phase for which announcement will be made at a later stage. Replying to a question, Desai said that BJP has deviated from its original goal of Hindutva and building Ram Temple.
He came down heavily on the proposed Bullet Train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, which was recently launched with much fanfare, and said that instead of taking the country in the right direction, the proposed train will take the country in reverse direction. Instead of focussing on such costly projects, the government should focus on improving the existing infrastructure and services," said Desai.
On demonetisation, which happened a year ago as well as Goods and Services Tax (GST) which was rolled out in the country four months ago, the party leader said that both in Maharashtra and Gujarat, businesses have slowed down. "The unorganised sector has been hit the most. The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are in trouble and its cascading effect is being felt on other sectors as well," he said.
The government's decision to merge Public Sector Banks (PSBs) has also not gone well with the party. Asked if the party would be able to make any impact in elections, Desai said that the party will put candidates for a win and not to enable anyone to win or lose.
WHAT'S ON TABLE
- Development and Hindutva will be the main issues on which the party will seek people’s mandate
- Sena is not in talks with any party for any sort of alliance
- However, it still hasn’t finalised all the seats it will contest in the first phase
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