Mumbai: After a full-page advertisement by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena sparked talks of a rift with ally BJP, the former went into damage-control mode Wednesday with another full-page ad in Marathi newspapers.
This second advertisement showed Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP standing next to each other and waving. The advertisement also carried pictures of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray and party leader Anand Dighe, whom Shinde considers his mentor.
The advertisement spoke about how “49.3 percent of Maharashtra’s population” prefers the leadership of Shinde and Fadnavis, citing a survey by Zee TV-Matrize, the results of which were released Monday.
The first ad had cited the same survey to claim that more people wanted Shinde as CM than they did Fadnavis, who has earlier led the state as CM.
Shiv Sena spokesperson Naresh Mhaske did not respond to ThePrint’s calls and text message.
However, a senior party leader said they “might have made some mistakes giving out an ad like that”.
“We might have hurt some people by not including them in the ad. So the party decided to give a fresh one to end all controversy,” the leader added.
Wednesday’s advertisement was in stark contrast to the first one, which was published across the front pages of some English and Marathi papers in Maharashtra Tuesday.
The advertisement, which had “Modi for India, Shinde for Maharashtra” written in bold letters, also declared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Shinde to be the “dream team loved by all”, and only carried the pictures of the two leaders.
While Fadnavis did not comment on Tuesday’s advertisement, Shinde struck a cordial note while speaking to reporters in Mumbai, crediting his government’s work to a “double-engine sarkar” and saying that people prefer the leadership of Shinde and Fadnavis.
However, sources from both sides said the advertisement did not go down too well with BJP leaders.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Rajya Sabha MP Anil Bonde said of the first ad: “…However much a frog may bloat, it will not become an elephant.”
Damage control
The advertisement controversy came at a time when local leaders of the BJP had made comments about not supporting a Shiv Sena candidate from Thane and Kalyan.
Thane is CM Shinde’s home turf and bastion, while Kalyan is the parliamentary constituency of his MP son Shrikant Shinde.
In damage control, Wednesday’s advertisement showed Shinde and Fadnavis waving together in the backdrop of images that visibly speak development — a smooth road, a Metro train, tall buildings, a dam, lush green land, a factory, a farmer, a man in a suit, a school girl, and a woman doctor.
It spoke about how 46.4 percent of the state’s population preferred the BJP and the Shiv Sena, as against a 34.6 percent preference for the alliance’s “primary rivals”.
This advertisement also included photographs of Bal Thackeray and Anand Dighe, perhaps in response to the Opposition’s criticism of the Shiv Sena’s first advertisement, which only featured a photo of Modi and Shinde.
The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had criticised the Shinde-led Shiv Sena for forgetting the party founder despite claiming to be the heir to his legacy.
Wednesday’s advertisement also carried images of all the nine Shiv Sena MLAs who are ministers in the Shinde-led government, showing them thanking the population of Maharashtra.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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