BJP strategy to marginalise allies playing out in Maharashtra: Sibal

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said the BJP's political strategy in states where it is not in power or in majority is to ally with other political parties, come to power and then marginalise them.

He said this strategy was successful in Bihar and was being played out in Maharashtra.

The message for opposition and small parties in the Maharashtra civic polls was that if they go with the BJP, they will be sidelined, he added.

In an X post, Sibal said, "BJP's political strategy: In states where they are not in power or are not in majority, ally with other political parties, come to power, then marginalise them." "This strategy: Successful in Bihar. Being played out in Maharashtra!" the Independent Rajya Sabha MP wrote.

Later, addressing a press conference, Sibal said the Maharashtra civic polls gave a few messages for the state as well as for national level elections.

"At the outset, I would like to tell people that the annual budget of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is Rs 74,000 crore and so, it is very important. In the last civic polls, Shiv Sena, which was united at the time, had won and was at the helm of BMC," Sibal said, adding that now Sena's Shinde faction has lost control of it.

"In 2012, BJP got just 31 seats. In 2017, they got 82, and this time, 89. The Shiv Sena got 74 in 2012, 84 in 2017 and 29 now. The Congress got 52 in 2012, 31 is 2017 and 24 now. The NCP got 13 seats in 2012, 9 in 2017 and now its 3. MNS won 28 seats in 2012, 7 in 2017 and now 6. So the graph of all parties is going down, apart from that of the BJP," he said.

Sibal said this has been the BJP's election strategy. "Where they feel they are weak, they form an alliance with a smaller party and eventually come to power and marginalise it," he said, citing the example of Lok Dal in Haryana and JD(U) in Bihar.

He said there is a message in this for parties aligning with the BJP.

"Look at what has happened to Ajit Pawar. Now Shinde has also taken the winners to a hotel as he knows the BJP buys and breaks leaders," Sibal said.

These elections have also clearly shown that the Shiv Sena belongs to Uddhav Thackeray and not Eknath Shinde, he claimed.

The Rajya Sabha MP said the country's politics is segregated around north pole and south pole, where north pole is the BJP and south pole the Congress, while it was the other way round when the Congress was in power.

"The smaller parties have to decide whether to get marginalised by aligning with the BJP or join hands with the opposition to fight it," Sibal said.

The BJP won 1,425 out of 2,869 seats in the Maharashtra civic polls to emerge as the single largest party in more than a dozen municipal corporations, including Mumbai and Pune, breaching the bastions of the Thackerays and Pawars.

According to the final tally, Shiv Sena won 399 seats, Congress 324, NCP 167, Shiv Sena (UBT) 155, NCP (SP) 36, MNS 13, BSP 6, parties registered with the SEC 129, unrecognised parties 196, and 19 independents.

The elections were held in the following municipal corporations: Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji. PTI ASK RUK RUK