Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Narayan Rane on Saturday predicted that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Maharashtra would spell doom for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
Targetting his bete-noire Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said: "I pray that Amit Shah's tour to Sindhudurg tomorrow proves to be a good omen and his feet in Maharashtra will hasten the fall of the MVA government."
Accusing the CM of pushing the state backwards in economic and infrastructure development, Rane alleged that the day when Shiv Sena President joined hands with the secular parties Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, Thackeray had sacrificed 'Hindutva' in his lust for the CM's post.
He added that there is no question now of the BJP ever having a tie-up with Sena in future as the former was capable of fighting independently in the state.
Speaking to mediapersons in Kankavali, his hometown in Sindhudurg district, Rane scoffed at the Sena's new campaign to lure the Gujarati community of Mumbai with the slogan 'Mumbai ma Jalebi ane Fafda, Uddhav Thackeray aapda'.
"The Gujarati community in Mumbai will always stand by (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and Shah. What is Shiv Sena's background? First they targeted south Indians, then Gujaratis, followed by north Indian, Muslims and now they are again wooing Gujaratis," Rane pointed out, giving a brief history of the Sena's past agitations.
Claiming that the BJP has done a 'PhD' in engineering defections, Rane assured that his party is fully geared to take on the Sena and the next Mumbai Mayor will be from BJP.
To a question on the Congress resurrecting itself after appointing senior leader Nana F. Patole as the new state president on Friday, Rane -- who left the Congress to join the BJP -- declared that the "Congress can never be the No.1 party again in the near future".
"The new party chief (Patole) did not indicate how long he will take to make his party (Congress) the top again. Only the BJP will remain numero uno at the state and national levels," Rane asserted.