Shiv Sena rakes up Ram mandir

Mumbai: Congratulating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, Shiv Sena expressed hope that the Ram temple would be constructed soon in Ayodhya. Shiv Sena’s attempt to contest the Uttar Pradesh and Goa Assembly polls did not yield much fruit for the party. The party could not secure 0.3 per cent of the vote share in the Uttar Pradesh, while in Goa it got a maximum of 428 votes in one of the three seats.

“Ram’s period of exile has ended. We now hope that Ram temple will be constructed soon in Ayodhya. We congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now people will realise importance of Shiv Sena and how we stopped the Modi wave in Mumbai. These results will not affect Maharashtra politics,” Sena MP Sanjay Raut told reporters.

The ties between the two allies, who fought the recent civic elections separately, have been strained and Sena had often taken digs at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run up to the Assembly polls.  

Referring to the Congress’ win in Punjab, Mr Raut said that people had voted for a change wherever there was a credible alternative to the incumbent government. In an apparent reference to the Samajwadi Party and its ally Congress, which lost the Uttar Pradesh polls to the BJP, Mr Raut remarked that those who lost the polls will now realise the importance of Shiv Sena and the manner in which it stopped the Modi wave from entering Mumbai.

In Uttar Pradesh, the party contested on 60 seats but did not get elected on a single seat. The Sena candidate got 29,000 votes in Gonda and 15,000 votes in Badai, the highest for the party. “Gonda and Badai were two bright spots for us. This time the voters have voted without any caste restriction. We would have done better if our leaders came for campaigning in Uttar Pradesh. Constituencies like Gonda would have got even more votes if the campaigning was strong,” Vinay Shukla, Shiv Sena’s in-charge for Uttar Pradesh polls said.

In Goa, the Sena was in alliance with Maharasht rawadi Gomantak Party, which won three seats. However, the Sena’s candidates at Saligao got 428 votes, 313 in Cuncolim and 51 in Mormagao.