Shiv Sena (UBT) won’t be able to cross the 50-mark in the forthcoming BMC elections, city BJP President Ashish Shelar said on Sunday as he addressed party workers at the Mumbai executive meet at Vasant Smriti in Dadar.People of Mumbai had been rejecting the Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership for the past 25 years, but the party managed to rule the BMC with the BJP’s support for all these years, Shelar said.
“Even when their numbers were going down, they kept warming the chairs because we were supporting them for Hindutva. Now things have changed. Today, I predict that Uddhavji's Shiv Sena will not be able to cross the 50-mark in the upcoming BMC elections,” said Shelar. Shiv Sena contested under Uddhav in 1997 and got 103 corporators. Between 1997 and 2002, the numbers came down to 97 and later to 84. In 2012, it dropped to 75. In 2017, their 84 corporators won. It could happen because they were part of our government. Had they not been in government in the state with us, they would have barely reached 60 back then,” he added, giving an analogy behind his calculations.
“Mumbaikars still believe in honesty, whereas Shiv Sena (UBT) is infamous for being the biggest pick-pocketer. Mumbai has been robbed by the BMC’s pick-pocketeers and MVA’s seasoned thieves who excel in this business of pick-pocketing,” Shelar added.While boasting of the BJP’s increased strength in the city, Shelar said, “Over 10,000 representatives participated in the conference of housing societies organised under the leadership of BJP. Needy women as well as 27,000 families were helped. We successfully accomplished 9 big events over 15 consecutive days, which I guarantee no other party will ever be able to do. The Mumbai civic polls is likely to be held in October or November this year.