A file photo of Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut
The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra, here on Monday, hailed the Jharkhand poll verdict in which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost power to the Congress-JMM-RJD combine.
The Shiv Sena targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah for their party's debacle and said now the BJP needed to 'introspect'.
"Modi and Shah deployed all their might in Jharkhanda yet the state slipped out of their hands. Soon after Maharashtra, they have been defeated in Jharkhand. They need some introspection," said Sena MP Sanjay Raut.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar termed it as the "defeat of the BJP's arrogance." "The Jharkhand Assembly poll results show that the people have lost faith the BJP. The Jharkhand voters have rejected the BJP's arrogant tactics of using money-power through its government at the Centre," Pawar said.
He said with Jharkhand the BJP had lost in a year five states -- Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
"This has boosted the confidence of people in other states. Wherever there is an opportunity, the people will make it (BJP) bite the dust. The BJP downslide has begun and nobody can arrest it," Pawar asserted.
Balasaheb Thorat, Congress state chief and Revenue Minister, said the BJP's "anti-people policies" led to the Jharkhand drubbing. "The BJP's attempts to exploit issues like their so-called nationalism by scrapping Article 370, the CAA-NRC and others have been outright rejected by the Jharkhand voters," said Thorat.
He said Jharkhand was a BJP bastion and it was ruling the state since its formation. "For the first time, the BJP has lost the state and the Congress alliance will form the government due to the BJP's anti-people policies," he said.
Samajwadi Party state chief Abu Asim Azmi said the Jharkhand voters had "consciously rejected" the BJP brand of patriotism in the name of Article 370, the CAA-NRC, attempt to create a "communal chasm" among the people.
