Floating the concept of a Grand Armada of regional parties to take on the BJP at the national level, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said this front could contest the Presidential polls due in mid-2017. Uddhav demanded that the next President of India should be apolitical and charged that the BJP was using constitutional posts like that of the Governor for narrow political ends.
"I feel that a common minimum program must be evolved for the country. If these parties come together, we can fight the Presidential polls. The President can and must be impartial. The same goes for Governors'," said Uddhav, while speaking to DNA on Thursday in the run-up to the BMC elections. He added that in states like Arunachal Pradesh, the Centre had tried to impose President's rule or usher in a BJP-led regime through the Governor.
"…We need an impartial President. We need a name which has not been associated with any political party and about whom the nation can be proud of. As a President, he must work independently and call a spade a spade," Uddhav explained.
The Shiv Sena's alliance with the BJP, which was forged in 1989, fell apart before the 2014 state assembly polls. The BJP managed to upstage its erstwhile senior ally to emerge as the single-largest party in the assembly.
Despite being part of the BJP-led dispensations in the state and Centre, the Sena has been attacking the BJP and will go solo in the BMC by snapping its pre-poll alliance.
"These people (regional parties) should be together to break this (BJP's) manmani," Uddhav demanded.
Incidentally, the Shiv Sena had broken ranks with the BJP in the 2007 and 2012 Presidential polls to support Congress nominees Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee.
"…during the Lok Sabha elections, people felt they wanted a change, the Congress should be done away with. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi had even campaigned during the 2009 elections, but this was of no use. After 2012, he projected himself properly and filled the vacuum. The people too accepted him. After decades, one party came to power in the Lok Sabha," said Uddhav.
He added that in the state assembly polls, the Shiv Sena had managed to hold its own against the BJP and prevented its estranged ally from getting a clear majority. Similarly, regional parties had upstaged the BJP in states like Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
"The people do not want this national party… They want their own (regional parties) which are organic to their states and which confirm with their sense of (regional) pride," noted Uddhav.
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray charged that the party's relations with the BJP had gone over the hill after Amit Shah had taken over as the BJP president.
"Before he became the Prime Minister and before the polls, we had good relations with Modi," he said, adding that he had visited Gujarat with senior leader Subhash Desai on Modi's invite. "We had spoken for a couple of times even after he became the Prime Minister. When Amit Shah came into the picture during the assembly elections, things deteriorated," said Uddhav.
