Mumbai : December 25:ONCE again displaying its new-found affection for the new Congress president and his party, the Shiv Sena Sunday said Rahul Gandhi might have failed to secure victory for his party in the Gujarat assembly elections but he ensured that his party emerged \u201cvictorious\u201d. The Maharashtra Congress welcomed the Sena\u2019s changed stand, saying people, parties and the opposition had realised the \u201cpositive leadership\u201d of Rahul Gandhi.
\n\u201cRahul Gandhi who was taunted as Pappu has shattered the notion that victory only means power and power can be bought\u2026\u201d said Sanjay Raut, executive editor of Sena mouthpiece Saamana. In his special column in the paper\u2019s Sunday supplement, Raut said, \u201cThe Gujarat election was between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. He made the BJP and the PM sweat it out\u2026\u201d Raut said though the entire focus of BJP campaigning was on Rahul Gandhi, the Congress president gave a befitting reply to those who dreamt of a \u201cCongress-mukt Bharat\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Shiv Sena said Rahul had pulled out Congress from the ashes. \u201cIn Uttar Pradesh, Congress tied up with Samajwadi Party but failed to achieve success. Till now he has remained unsuccessful\u2026A machinery was working overtime to taunt him as an idiot and unsuccessful\u2026However, Gujarat has broken his series of unsuccessful ventures. He campaigned well, gave patient speeches, endured criticism and defamation and has emerged a strong leader,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRahul Gandhi kept saying he respected Prime Minister\u2019s post and he is at odds with \u2018egoist\u2019 Modi\u2026I want to fight this war with patience and decently,\u201d Raut said in the write-up.
\nHe said BJP president Amit Shah had vowed to win 350 Lok Sabha seats. \u201cHe had also said if BJP won less than 150 seats, victory celebrations should not be held. But BJP ended up securing less than 100, which proves that Rahul Gandhi remains a challenge for 2019 elections,\u201d said Raut.
\nThe Sena leader said he was not a Congress supporter. \u201cBut if a strong opposition was ready to stand behind Rahul, we welcome it,\u201d he said. After the Gujarat elections, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had sung paeans to Rahul Gandhi. Saamana had called him a \u201cbaazigar\u201d and said the Gujarat model was trembling.<\/p>\n
Reacting to Sena\u2019s changed stand, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, \u201cWe welcome the Sena\u2019s reaction. It is clear that people, parties and the opposition in the country have realised the kind of leadership that Rahul Gandhi is providing. As against the divisive politics practised by the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi believed in inclusive politics and taking each and every citizen of this country along. While Rahul Gandhi believed in positive leadership, Modi was spreading negativity.\u201d
\nFor months now, especially after its relations with the state BJP soured drastically, the Shiv Sena has been heaping praise on Congress and Rahul Gandhi. \u201cFor years, the Sena had been vitriolic on its attack on the Congress. But now it is clear that the Shiv Sena does not find Congress untouchable. Till the national leadership clear the air about Congress relations with the Sena, we will have to keep quiet,\u201d said a Congress leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mumbai : December 25:ONCE again displaying its new-found affection for the new Congress president and his party, the Shiv Sena Sunday said Rahul Gandhi might have failed to secure victory for his party in the Gujarat assembly elections but he ensured that his party emerged \u201cvictorious\u201d. The Maharashtra Congress welcomed the Sena\u2019s changed stand, saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15524,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions\/15524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}