Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections later this year, a programme by Shiv Sena MLA Yamini Jadhav for distribution of burqas to Muslim women has led to friction within the ruling Maha Yuti as the BJP has taken objection to it.
Yamini Jadhav is wife of senior Shiv Sena leader Yeshwant Jadhav, who calls the shots in the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The Jadhav couple had left the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) to join Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in Lok Sabha polls.
Yamini Jadhav, an MLA from Byculla, had unsuccessfully contested the general elections from Mumbai South against Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena.
In one of the videos, Yamini Jadhav is seen handing out burqas, while in another video she is heard saying the distribution was not being done keeping the coming state elections in mind.
“If the opposition thinks that this burqa, hijab distribution is being done to gain trust of Muslims then they should know this is not," Jadhav is heard saying in the vidoe.
However, the BJP has taken objection to it.
"It is the prerogative of the local MLA to distribute whatever he wants, but the BJP does not approve of politics of appeasement like distributing burqas,” Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar said.