Maharashtra | 'Dirty Politics Over Loudspeaker Didn't Work': Sanjay Raut After MVA's Bypoll Win
In the bypoll, Congress-MVA candidate Jayashri Jadhav bagged 96,176 votes while BJP's Satyajeet Kadam got 77,426.
New Delhi: Taking a jibe at Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and opposition BJP, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, after the victory of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in the bypoll to Kolhapur North Assembly constituency on Saturday, said the result shows ‘dirty politics’ over the issue of loudspeaker and recital of Hanuman Chalisa did not work.
In the bypoll, held after the death of sitting Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav due to Covid-19 last December, Congress-MVA candidate Jayashri Jadhav bagged 96,176 votes while BJP's Satyajeet Kadam got 77,426. Jadhav won by a margin of 18,750 votes, election officials said.
Targeting MNS and BJP, Raut, as quoted by news agency PTI, said, “When the campaign was at its peak in Kolhapur, the issue of loudspeaker at mosques and Hanuman Chalisa was brought up. But the people of Kolhapur have given them the answer and the loudspeakers have been removed. The politics of loudspeakers has ended today. Everybody knows who was behind the loudspeaker issue...”
He added, “Over the years, we have been celebrating Hanuman Jayanti and Ram Navami with religious fervour peacefully. But this time there were communal riots on the day of Ram Navami. This did not happen in the past. There were riots in 10 states on Ram Navami. Creating riots wherever there are elections and winning the polls is the BJP's strategy now.”
Notably, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, in his rallies, had warned that if the loudspeakers were not removed from mosques, Hanuman Chalisa would be played in front of the religious places. The BJP had also extended its support to Thackeray.
Alleging that the opposition was trying to create communal discord in the states going to polls in a few months, Raut said, “In 1987, Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray gave a call for Hindutva and won the Vile Parle by-election. Some people are a cheap copy of the late Sena supremo. But it is of no use...Those who have taken Hindutva on rent should not teach Hindutva to us. Those who boast of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa cannot say even the first two stanzas of it by heart. They cannot even recite the national anthem and Vande Mataram.”
"Creating communal riots and winning elections is a pattern and package now. But it will divide the country into pieces. Playing loudspeakers up to the permissible decibel limits are allowed...The politics of loudspeakers is leading to social unrest. Even the two great Hindutva leaders Swantantryaveer Savarkar and Balasaheb Thackeray did not raise the issue. No one should do it," Raut said, adding that the dirty politics has ended with the bypoll result.
Meanwhile, NCP spokesman Mahesh Tapase said that the people of Kolhapur have given a "befitting reply to BJP's communal politics."
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