The AIMIM has backed the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and lambasted the BJP for “weakening the Marathi Manoos”.
“The kind of politics BJP is currently playing has never been seen in Maharashtra. BJP has taken politics to a very low level,” AIMIM’s Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel told The Indian Express recently.
He added, “We have ideological differences with the Shiv Sena. But it is a fact that Shiv Sena has been associated with Marathi pride and Marathi self-respect. But the BJP and its leaders like Amit Shah have succeeded in breaking the Shiv Sena, and in the process they have succeeded in weakening the Marathi Manoos…Though it is true that MIM will gain by the split in Shiv Sena, we are not looking at such gains…BJP has committed a sin by breaking the Sena and this is very unfortunate.
He further said, “I am also a Marathi Manoos. I am a Maharashtrian…It hurts me as a Marathi Manoos to find that the party which came to our rescue has been dealt a body blow just because the BJP wanted to play low-grade politics.”
