Sanjay Raut warns Congress after Haryana results

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has issued a warning to the Congress that it should drop its big brother attitude. He said, “Nobody should assume the role of a big brother or a small brother. The Haryana results will not have any impact on Maharashtra elections. Alert leaders such as Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray are present in Maharashtra.” He was speaking to the media.

Raut said, “If the Congress wants to go alone in the polls, they should clarify their position. This will leave other parties to take their own stand.

“The Congress is aligning with other regional parties, where they feel that they are weak but they fight elections alone where they feel they are strong. Therefore, one gets Haryana-like results. Had we fought the Haryana elections together as the INDIA alliance, the results would have been different. Our alliance would have emerged victorious. The Congress fell short of nine seats, which is not a big difference. The result has not made us despondent. But the Congress will have to take a firm stand. There are elections in many states. If it wants to fight on its own there, it should clarify. This will allow other regional parties to decide their course of action.

“It is an unfortunate defeat in Haryana. The INDIA alliance should have fought together. Probably, the results would have been different. The Congress should have aligned with the SP, the AAP, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP). This would have contributed to a win. The Congress thought they would win it alone. They did not need anyone. The exit polls also said so.

“I did not meet a single person or journalist claiming a victory for the BJP. This is unfortunate that the Congress still had to face the defeat. We should learn many lessons from this. Nobody should assume a role of a big brother or a small brother. Besides the success in the Lok Sabha is a collective achievement of the INDIA alliance.”