No single party will win majority in Lok Sabha polls, NDA will collectively form govt: Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut

A file picture of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut  |  Photo Credit: ANI

Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut is a prominent face of his party. The Maharashtra politician also edits the Marathi newspaper Saamana and is known to be close to party chief Uddhav Thackeray. With his keen understanding of state and national politics, Raut could play an even more important role in the NDA if the BJP falls short of a majority in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Speaking exclusively to Timesnownews.com, a candid Sanjay Raut touched upon a range of issues, including the relationship between the BJP and Shiv Sena, the saffron alliance’s chances in Maharashtra and the importance of coalition dharma.

Akrita Reyar: What is your overview of the way the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign is going on and assessment of the outcome? 

Sanjay Raut: If we were to speak of Maharashtra alone, we (the NDA) had won the 2014 election with ease, riding the kind of sentiment that prevailed then. In Maharashtra too, we all rode the Modi wave or storm as you may call it. But that was five years ago. Modi has governed the nation for this duration. It is but natural that people will ask for a performance report. This election too will be fought with Modi's name as the ace as no leader across India, whether in the Congress, UPA or Mahagathbandhan, comes close to him in terms of popularity. But that the political situations of 2014 and 2019 differ from each other has to be factored in. We are contesting the elections with acceptance of this fact. And I believe that our performance in Maharashtra will be impressive.

Akrita Reyar: In one of his earlier rallies, Uddhav Thackeray too used the 'chowkidar chor hai' line. One wondered then if the two NDA partners would ally again for the Lok Sabha polls. Some say there was an internal survey on the prospects of going alone.

Sanjay Raut: That (contesting the polls separately) would have meant losses for both the parties. Initially, Uddhav Thackeray had announced that we would be contesting independently. Since after 2017, we had contested alone, as it is. The Assembly alliance was not called off by us, they (the BJP) did. We were gearing up to contest the 48 seats in Maharashtra for the 2019 Lok Sabha and the impending Assembly polls independently. But the survey and our interaction with our party workers on the ground altered our take. The BJP too realised that its alliance partners were hurt, it was no more the 2014-like wave, and that some partners had even quit the alliance. The consensus that evolved was that we need to strengthen the NDA alliance.

This country has seen a number of great anti-Congress political stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Balasaheb Thackeray, LK Advani, and now even Narendra Modi. The motto of the NDA was to take on the Congress. But the era of any single party fighting the Congress successfully is passe. In 2014, the BJP got a majority that had eluded any party for the last 25 years. They assumed that they would expand their base 100% across India, but that is not how it panned out. 

So a little before the 2019 Lok Sabha election was due, the BJP witnessed shocking defeats in bye-elections in Madhya Pradesh, UP, Rajasthan, and even in Maharashtra. Maharashtra's two bye-elections for the Lok Sabha shook them up. In Vidarbha, they lost outright. In Palghar, they just scraped through and we were close on their heels. That made us rethink and realise that fighting elections independently was good neither for the BJP nor for us. That would benefit the Congress party that we had come together to fight. Then, (BJP president) Amit Shah connected with Uddhav Thackeray and that is when we thought that let us give this alliance another chance.

Akrita Reyar: Uddhav Thackeray had spoken about Vajpayee and how he used to believe in coalition dharma...

Sanjay Raut: He (Uddhav) believes in it even today.

Akrita Reyar: He (Uddhav Thackeray) said Modi and Vajpayee have different approaches to the coalition. He said Vajpayee had a different style of functioning. 

Sanjay Raut: Vajpayee took all his coalition partners along. In a partnership, if coalition partners are not given due respect, it develops cracks. By respect, we do not mean demanding ministerial berths, etc. There are other facets to it and if that is denied, it leads to a trickle as it happened in the NDA. We, in the Shiv Sena, are upset. Such acrimony often hurts the bigger party in the coalition. If the NDA has survived despite these faultlines, the credit goes to the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal, for keeping it going. We have followed coalition dharma. We reiterate that the NDA is not one party, but a front of many parties that was born to keep the Congress out of power. In 2019 too, not any one single party but the NDA collectively will march to power.

Akrita Reyar: For decades, the Shiv Sena was the 'Big Brother' or stronger party in Maharashtra, as compared to the BJP. The exception, however, was the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the following Assembly elections. Were there fears within the Shiv Sena that the BJP is outpacing it and may occupy the Shiv Sena's space?

Sanjay Raut: No, not at all. See, it a universal fact that, whether it be the NCP or the Congress, for instance, or be it Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra or any others state, the party in power has access to resources and the state machinery, it has the Home Ministry at its disposal. These days the Home Ministry runs the country. But when out of power, these seasonal leaders vanish or jump ship. Shiv Sena has never indulged in this activity. BJP has power, people are being attracted to it. 

Stalwarts from the Congress walked to the BJP. If we had been in power, they would have flocked to us. If we were in the BJP's position, these leaders would have flocked to us. Once, there was a queue lined up to join the Shiv Sena. When our Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi was the chief minister. This is the magic of power and the nature of politics in India. We (the Shiv Sena) are unaffected by this.

Akrita Reyar: So, if you look at Maharashtra's political scenario, how do you see the NDA placed against the resurgent Congress-NCP alliance?

Sanjay Raut: Agreed that Maharashtra was, for decades, the bastion of the Congress. Even today, though weakened, the Congress cadres exist in villages. It is not easy to finish a party, no party can be finished off. Once, people scripted the end of the Shiv Sena, but look, we are back. A party's political ideology survives. The BJP once won two seats but look at its sweep now. Shiv Sena is a party born out of the people's movement, a party with a revolutionary spirit. Congress and the NCP have their networks across villages. Now BJP has strengthened itself... we have to see how things turn out on counting day.

Akrita Reyar: Will Prakash Ambedkar and Asaduddin Owaisi's parties joining hands cut the vote share and affect the election outcome, especially in places like Marathwada region?

Sanjay Raut: If Owaisi and Prakash Ambedkar were such influential leaders, why has their alliance not been able to weave their magic anywhere outside Maharashtra? Prakash Ambedkar gets the lift he does in Maharashtra only because his iconic grandfather the late Babasaheb Ambedkar hails from Maharashtra. Dr BR Ambedkar is a jewel that was born to this soil. In Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati gets votes on Dr Ambedkar's name. Prakash Ambedkar cannot spin that same electoral magic here because people are sceptical now.

Akrita Reyar: Will his alliance cut the vote share?

Sanjay Raut: It sure will. Earlier too the Republican Party of India worked along with the Congress to cut vote share and now the Owaisi-Prakash Ambedkar alliance hopes to achieve the same. But I bet that there is no significant section of Muslims in that vote bank. Ambedkar has been able to gain Dalits to his side after the Bhima Koregaon incident but the Muslim vote is going with the Congress.

Akrita Reyar: There is this extremely insensitive statement that has come from Sadhvi Pragya, the BJP candidate from Bhopal. She claims that Hemant Karkare, who is a national hero to us - for having fought against and fallen to the Pakistani terrorists' bullet - tortured her and that she cursed him, a few weeks prior to his death. How does one justify this insult to a national hero?

Sanjay Raut: We had clarified our stand right in the beginning when the probe had thrown up the names of Colonel Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya. We had demanded an impartial investigation and insisted that the ATS must not unfairly target innocents under pressure from any quarters. No innocent - whether he/she be Hindu or Muslim - must be framed for crimes that they have not committed, just to politically benefit some party. At that time, we had even supported Sadhvi Pragya Singh. If she claims that she was framed, it warrants a probe. But insulting martyrs like Karkare, Kamte, and Salaskar also hurts the pride we have in our brave soldiers who died defending us selflessly against Pakistan's violations; it belittles our brave policemen. Even Uddhav Thackeray has reiterated in the Kolhapur rally that Karkare is a martyr and his memory should be respected. If Sadhvi Pragya has said something that disturbs the ethos, the Bharatiya Janata Party must come forth with its explanation on the issue.

Akrita Reyar: What about Priyanka Chaturvedi? Her ideology belongs to the school of thought that is poles apart from the Shiv Sena. While she was in Congress, she was vitriolic on social media against the Hindutva ideology...

Sanjay Raut: People do sometimes change their minds, it's possible. She came to our party, we welcomed her.