Mumbai: The BJP-led government has totally changed the discussion on development in Mumbai and this will help the party in the Lok Sabha elections, said BJP’s Mumbai president Ashish Shelar.
He also said that besides development, Balakot is an issue for Mumbai voters. The city will vote in the fourth phase on 29 April.
“Earlier there was a debate and discussion that why can’t anything happen. Why can’t we see development? Why can’t we see that speed of development? Today, we see that there is an argument on why development is happening here. Why development should not happen this way. Why development should happen (by) taking some points into consideration,” Shelar told ThePrint in an interview.
“Now the debate is not about why development is not happening. This discourse has changed,” he added.
But BJP leaders have been highlighting the Balakot air strikes and the issue of national security in equal measure in their election campaigns in Mumbai.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has made statements like opposition leaders seeking proof of the Balakot air strikes should have been strapped to rockets so that they could have “seen with their own eyes”.
“I have full confidence that the voter understands what we say. It may be the media that is trying to project what they want. If you take any speech of any of our leaders, 60-70 per cent of it is about development,” said Shelar.
“The bottom line is that Mumbai voters will see development as well as India’s defence capacities…Balakot is an issue because Congress has spoken about sedition. They want to scrap the sedition law and people are angry about it.”
Also read: How Fadnavis govt fast-tracked Mumbai infra projects, some of which were in limbo for years
‘Congress candidates lack confidence’
Shelar said there is an even stronger wave in the favour of the BJP now than what it was in 2014, and the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will once again win all the six parliamentary seats in Mumbai.
On Congress candidates from the city, Shelar said they are low on confidence.
“Priya Dutt is hardly visible, hardly campaigning. Milind Deora is seen only in newspapers but not on the road,” Shelar said, adding that both the former MPs had initially shown their unwillingness to contest and that displayed their lack of confidence.
Dutt is the Congress candidate from Mumbai North Central seat, contesting against sitting BJP MP Poonam Mahajan, while Deora is fighting the election from Mumbai South seat against sitting Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant.
“Regarding Mumbai North, the former Congress MP (Sanjay Nirupam) ran away from that constituency. So again, the ‘confidence-less face’ of the Congress is seen, and the fact that they have got someone from Bollywood itself shows that they are not sure that as Congress they can even gather people (to fight elections),” Shelar added.
Nirupam, the former MP of Mumbai North, chose to contest from Mumbai North West this time against sitting Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar. The Congress has fielded actor Urmila Matondkar from Mumbai North to take on BJP’s incumbent MP Gopal Shetty.
On industrialist Mukesh Ambani and banker Uday Kotak endorsing Deora in South Mumbai, Shelar said, “The Congress has a culture of getting support from industrial houses and this has shown the true face of the Congress of only banking on business houses. The voter doesn’t like it and that is why Congress will lose.”
Once a Sena critic, now a campaigner of the alliance
Until two years ago, Shelar was one of the fiercest critics of the Shiv Sena, alleging corruption in the Sena-led Mumbai civic body and taking on its senior leaders while campaigning for the Mumbai civic polls.
The two parties had contested the 2017 local elections as rivals. Shelar, however, insisted that voters will not see BJP leaders campaigning for the Shiv Sena as hypocrisy.
“You can term it whatever you want to, but what I was doing was campaigning for my own party. Today, we are in alliance, so I am campaigning for the alliance,” Shelar said.
“So, the stand is very clear and the voter will only try to see if we have been factually honest or not. We were honest then as well and are honest even today,” he added.
Also read: BJP & Shiv Sena take cover under ‘ideology’ umbrella to clinch pre-poll alliance
For the BJP – SS to win all six of Bombay’s six Lok Sabha seats is looking likely. Some part of the responsibility will lie with Sanjay Nirupam, till recently Congress chief for the city.