Mumbai: On the first day of the special session of the Maharashtra Assembly, Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Abu Azmi announced that his party had decided to withdraw from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Speaking to reporters outside Vidhan Bhavan, Azmi stated that the Shiv Sena (UBT) had adopted a “Hindutva agenda” following its recent defeat in the Maharashtra assembly elections, which is why SP needed to reconsider staying with the alliance.
“If one alliance partner within the MVA is going to send congratulations over the demolition of Babri Masjid and if they are going to adopt a Hindutva agenda, then the Samajwadi Party needs to think,” Azmi said.
This decision follows a recent development where Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide, Milind Narvekar, took to his social media platform X to praise the demolition of the Babri mosque. Additionally, a related newspaper advertisement was published in the Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece, Saamana.
“I will speak with Akhilesh Yadav today, but even the Congress and NCP (Sharad Pawar) need to think whether they would stay with such a communal alliance,” Azmi added.
SP won two seats in the Maharashtra elections this time—Azmi from Mankhurd-Shivajinagar and Rais Kasam Shaikh from Bhiwandi East.
Although Shaikh has officially declined to comment on the issue, he expressed his displeasure with Sena (UBT) over their views on Babri Masjid on social media.
On Friday, he posted on X: “This is to remind you that the Shiv Sena UBT party enjoyed enormous support from secular votes in the last two elections—Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. The glorification of the dark day in India’s history is uncalled for & unwarranted. I strongly condemn such kind of glorification.”
ThePrint reached some Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs via calls, one declined to comment, others did not take calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The three-day special session, which began Saturday in Mumbai, was convened with the agenda of swearing in MLAs and electing a speaker. However, only the ruling MLAs took oath, while the opposition MVA boycotted the ceremony. The MVA MLAs, questioning the entire election process and the use of EVMs, chose not to take oath.
“As a mark of protest, we have decided to boycott the oath taking ceremony for MLAs. Because whatever the atmosphere that has to be there in the state after getting the historic mandate is not there. There are no celebrations anywhere,” said Aaditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA, to reporters. “So, the question arises, whether this is a people’s mandate or election commission or EVM’s mandate. We all have won the election and despite that we have doubts over EVM, and so to give respect to people and the doubts they have in them, we have decided to not take the oath.”
Congress’s senior leader Vijay Wadettiwar, speaking to the media, also raised doubts over the EVM process and questioned the authorities over their reluctance to take mock polls in Solapur’s Markadwadi village.
“If this would have been people’s mandate, then the authorities should not have rejected Markadwadi villagers’ plea to let them conduct a mock poll. But since the authorities are scared, which means somewhere they are trying to kill democracy and so we have decided to boycott the oath taking ceremony,” Wadettiwar said.
However, Abu Azmi and Rais Shaikh did take oath as MLAs.
“I took the oath as required. Anyway, even during the seat sharing process, MVA kept us out and we were not a part of MVA. So, it doesn’t matter,” Azmi told the media.
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The Samajwadi Party must rethink it’s position on the Babri Masjid issue. Hindus would not vote for anyone who opposes the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, on the site of the Babri Masjid. They will end up alienating 80% of the Indian population.