Shiv Sainiks worried of getting their hands burnt!

New Delhi: When Maharashtra government minister Nawab Malik was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), there was a lot of chaos in Mumbai.

There was a meeting at Sharad Pawar’s house, Mamata Banerjee called Pawar, and later then Pawar went to meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and it was decided that the next day the entire government would protest in support of Malik.

But the next day’s performance was carried out only by NCP and Congress. All the ministers of NCP and Congress in the Uddhav government demonstrated in front of the ministry and other leaders of both the parties protested in other parts. In this, most of the MPs, MLAs and ministers of Shiv Sena remained absent.

Later Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said in the manner of clarification that the entire government and Shiv Sena also stood with Nawab Malik.

But the reality is that Shiv Sena has distanced itself from the issue. According to informed sources, there are two reasons for this.

The first reason is that Malik has been arrested for being close to Dawood Ibrahim’s family members and buying their property.

And secondly, the whole matter of ED is related to Muslims and Shiv Sena does not want to get entangled in these two issues before Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections to be held in next two months.

In Mumbai, it has to unite the votes of ‘Marathi Manush’ and Hindus. Shiv Sena knows that it is not going to get Muslim vote and if it is seen more with Malik then Hindu vote will shift to BJP.

That is why Shiv Sena has decided to fight alone by separating from NCP and Congress. On the other hand NCP has nothing at stake in BMC.