In a joint party workers’ meet at Amravati city of Vidharba, Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena reaffirmed their commitment towards the same ideology. The parties, which have overcome significant differences to seal the alliance, asserted that it was time to put the past behind and work together towards winning the General Elections.

Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray said that it was the right time to forget the ups and downs between the alliance partners in recent times both in mind and heart. As reported by India Today, he stated, “Whatever we said about each other or the party, it happened in public. For the last 25 years, Shiv Sena and BJP are political partners. Since the past 4.5 years, we were having ups and downs but we never obstructed the development work because of the differences.”

Thackeray then went on to add, “We have joined hands to safeguard Hindutva and this won’t be possible just by merely joining hands, or just taking the saffron flag in hand or by shouting slogans. We all need to forget the past differences and work together so that we win the 2019 general election. If Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was present today, he would have severely punished us by pushing all of us from a mountain cliff if we betrayed the alliance.”

Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, who also addressed the gathering, echoed Thackeray’s sentiments. “The country’s atmosphere is different now, on one side is development, but what is much more dear to BJP-Shiv Sena workers is India and nationalism,” he said. “We are the people who believe in country first,” he added.

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Taking a dig at the opposition parties, Fadnavis remarked, “I know these people would never get elected, but I fear if by any chance they come into power tomorrow they will change the history. They will call Aurangzeb as `Aurangzebji’, Afzal Khan as `Afzal Khan ji and General Dyer as General Dyer ji.”

Calling the Sena-BJP alliance one of ideology, the Chief Minister said, “We are Hindutva (parties) and are proud of it. Hindutva is not a limited concept so whosoever, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, has nationalism in him is part of this Hindutva. This is the thread that binds the Sena and the BJP together.”