Sena advises BJP to resolve issues internally

Mumbai, July 14: Taking a dig at BJP amid reports of differences between Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and party MP Pankaja Munde in wake of the Cabinet rejig, Shiv Sena today said problems could be resolved through telephone calls rather than making them public.

However, opposition Congress said the ruling ally has no moral right to make comments on indiscipline in the government when the "Sena has a long history of disrespecting the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister".

After Munde was relieved of the water conservation portfolio in the recent Cabinet reshuffle, her supporters staged a protest in Ahmednagar district and burnt effigies of Fadnavis.

The internal bickering also spilled onto social media, where she recently announced that she was to reach Singapore to attend a global water leader summit but won't do so as she was no longer the minister of that department.

Fadnavis, who was then on a tour to Germany, immediately responded by saying that she must attend the event. "BJP used to advice (us) that being part of the government, one should be disciplined. We are thus surprised by the protests against the Chief Minister.

There were similar protests when Eknath Khadse had to resign. "The internal problems between Cabinet ministers could have been kept away from the world had there been a telephonic conversation between them," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said.

It further taunted the BJP saying that the party had won the Assembly polls due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but even his luck factor did not work in states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Bihar.

"BJP workers should have instead burnt Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's effigy as she has been unsuccessful in ruling the state. The whole state is burning but nobody from BJP is saying anything about it," it said. "Fadnavis is not the CM of BJP but whole of Maharashtra," the Sena said.

However, responding to Sena's comments, Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria said, "They should be ashamed of themselves...because the Sena has a long history of disrespecting the PM and the CM. Today they have no moral right to talk about indiscipline in the government."

PTI