Mumbai, January 5 (IANS). Before the BMC elections, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale has given a sharp reaction to the questions being raised by Mahavikas Aghadi regarding the election of more than 60 candidates of Mahayuti unopposed. Athawale said that the work of Mahavikas Aghadi is only to raise questions, while Mahayuti will remain in power.
Speaking to IANS, Athawale clarified that on seats where nomination of only one candidate has been filed, the Election Commission has the right under the rules to declare that candidate elected unopposed. At many places the opposition did not even file nominations, so winning unopposed is part of the natural process.
Ramdas Athawale said that the country is continuously progressing under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and better development is also taking place in Maharashtra. This is why the public wants to elect the candidates of PM Modi’s party and his allies. He reiterated that Mahayuti is not against anyone. The government is working on PM Modi’s core message “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”.
On NCP leader Nawab Malik calling his party a ‘king maker’, Athawale said he is confident that BJP, Shiv Sena and RPI together will get a strong majority.
He claimed that Mahayuti will win more than 150 seats. Athawale told that his Republican Party of India is contesting elections on 12 seats. Although RPI has not got any seat directly yet, a worker of his party has won from Eknath Shinde’s quota. He clearly said that RPI is completely with Mahayuti.
Responding to the statement made by a Shiv Sena leader about the Mayor that “there will be no one to say Vande Mataram”, Athawale said that such statements serve to create division between Hindus and Muslims. He said that the Muslim community is the citizen of this country and their protection is the duty of the government. Athawale stressed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi participates in programs of every religion and the Muslim community also gets the benefits of all the government schemes equally.
On the Supreme Court rejecting the bail plea of Omar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the Delhi riots case, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said that the court has full right to give its decisions and it is not appropriate to question the judicial process.
At the same time, when Congress leaders said that the accused were not getting bail because they were Muslims and the Supreme Court was working at the behest of the government, Athawale expressed strong objection to this. He said that this is not a matter of religion, but of law. Making such a statement by Congress is like supporting Pakistan. He alleged that Congress has always been speaking against the government and its role reflects anti-India mentality.
–IANS
ASH/VC
