A day after BJP’s humiliating defeat in Bihar, the Shiv Sena on Monday said that despite using political might, money and a slew of announcements, the BJP could not even win 60 seats and its allies have been buried 20 feet underground. Hailing Nitish Kumar as a clean and honest leader, the Sena said that those who had taken the Delhi Assembly election lightly would have to take the Bihar results seriously. All Shiv Sena candidates lost their deposits, but the party seems delighted by BJP’s drubbing. There were messages floating on WhatsApp, apparently created by Sena supporters, which claimed that Shiv Sena has hurt the BJP in at least 35 seats in Bihar.
Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray congratulated “Bihari voters” for voting for Shiv Sena and extended compliments to newly elected government “to fulfil the promises”.
“Shiv Sena candidates polled 2,11,137 votes! Well done!” Aditya posted on his Twitter handle, adding, “I cannot thank Bihari voters enough for having accepted the Shiv Sena so well to give a good electoral start in the elections.”
Even the editorial published in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana said that the poll verdict has proved that people can be “fooled only once”.
“One can win an election using power and money only once, like you can make a fool out of a person only once. We do not know if crackers have been burst in Pakistan after Nitish Kumar’s victory, but, in Bihar, crackers are certainly being burst,” the Saamana editorial said. It was a clear dig at BJP president Amit Shah, who had said during the election campaign that if by mistake BJP loses the polls, crackers will be burst in Pakistan.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has called Mr Kumar immediately after the election results were out and congratulated him.
The Shiv Sena was full of praise of Nitish Kumar. The party said that one of the reasons behind the grand alliance’s win was that Kumar did not lie and worked after taking the people into confidence.
“He did not make false promises, stopped hooliganism and brought law and order. He did not show off money and power. He was simple and during the course of campaigning, did not use uncivilised language. All this led to his victory,” the Saamana edit said.
