After attacking the BJP for making abrogation of Article 370 an election issue in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena has now in an editorial in mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ asked if the national party could have crossed the 300-seat mark in the Lok Sabha elections had the Pulwama attack followed by the retaliatory Balakot airstrikes not happened.
Sena’s comment comes after Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s remark that a change in power was likely in Maharashtra if there was no “Pulwama-like incident”.
“Pulwama and Balakot became an election issue for the BJP. Had Pulwama not happened, would the BJP have crossed the 300 mark?” the Sena asked.
Sena went on to call the statements made by the armed forces close to elections “worrying”. “During this time, the army chief has informed that 500 ‘Jaish’ (JeM) terrorists are ready to infiltrate into India from Balakot… This is worrying because there is an election in Maharashtra,” Saamna editorial said.
Speaking to media in Chennai on September 23, army chief General Bipin Rawat said the Balakot terror launchpad of Jaish-e-Mohammed that was destroyed by the Indian Air Force (IAF) strike on February 26, had been reactivated.
The editorial clarified that Shiv Sena didn’t think the army chief was helping a political party through his statements before adding that such statements have an “impact on the political atmosphere”.
.“No information on what is happening in Kashmir is being put out currently. But it is important that the information on Balakot was brought forward by the army chief… The opposition has said that with elections around the corner, topic such as Balakot are being discussed and that the army chief should stay clear of statements that may favour a political party. We do not think that the army chief made the statements to help any political party, but it has an impact on the political atmosphere,” said Shiv Sena in the editorial.
The Shiv Sena and the BJP are currently in a stalemate over seat sharing formula for Maharashtra polls. Maharashtra goes to polls on October 21.
