BJP dares Shiv Sena to snap alliance ahead of BMC polls

Shiv Sena Chief, Uddhav Thackeray, had earlier dared the BJP to contest the upcoming polls as an individual entity

Lauding the centre-ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) with praises for initiating the September 28 surgical strikes, the party's Mumbai unit Chief, Ashish Shelar, challenged its ruling ally, Shiv Sena, on Wednesday to 'strike off' their alliance for the upcoming BMC polls next year.

"They (the Sena) should not talk about surgical strikes. It was only PM Narendra Modi who could get the surgical strikes done because it is only he who has a 56-inch chest. You (the Sena) are not capable of it," said Shelar while addressing a group of reporters at Mumbai.

Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had, on October 11, taken potshots at Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, asking him to decide on a specific leader in the BJP. He had also dared the BJP to contest as an individual entity in the upcoming polls.

"Break the alliance and we will show you our surgical strike," Thackeray had said in an apparent reference to MP Kirit Somaiya's recent remark that BJP was all set to contest BMC polls, due early next year, independently.

Shelar further said that the BJP will continue its campaign against the "mafia raj" prevalent in the Sena-ruled MCGM and that the intensity of the party's agitation against corruption will only increase henceforth.

"They (the Sena) have started it but we will end it. We will respond in a manner in which they understand. We will not go back in our fight against corruption," Shelar said.