A day after Shiv Sena's demand to strip Muslims of their voting rights drew outrage, the BJP too chastised its alliance partner and called it "unconstitutional". However, Sena leaders claimed that the outcry over the remarks made in the party organ Saamna was missing when All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leaders made inflammatory statements.
A day after Shiv Sena's demand to strip Muslims of their voting rights drew outrage, the BJP too chastised its alliance partner and called it "unconstitutional". However, Sena leaders claimed that the outcry over the remarks made in the party organ Saamna was missing when All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leaders made inflammatory statements.
In his weekly column on Sunday, Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, who is the newspaper's executive editor, called for Muslims to be divested of their voting rights to prevent them from being used in vote-bank politics.
Incidentally, the article came just a day after the Bandra East bypolls, where the party is locked in a fight to save its prestige against the Congress and the AIMIM. During the campaign, AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi had dared Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to set foot in their stronghold of Hyderabad.
"This is a basic right under the constitution. All citizens have the right to vote according to the Indian constitution... no one can change it," said BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, adding that "any talk of removing it or suggesting a change will be unconstitutional".
"When Owaisi makes inflammatory statements no one takes him to task," said state transport minister and senior Sena leader Diwakar Raote, adding that Raut had only mentioned the views of the late Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
"Sanjay Raut has also spoken out for the welfare of the Muslim community. He has explained why the Sena chief said this," added Raote.
"Is Hyderabad the private property (of the Owaisis)? They think they are living in the times of the Nizam. No one talks about that... Muslims are only being used as vote bank," charged Raote.
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