'BJP tried till the last moment to get support from Shiv Sena UBT on Waqf Bill', claims Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut has asserted that the BJP leaders attempted until the last minute to take the support of his party over the Waqf Bill. Sanjay Raut added that the top brass of BJP in Delhi and in Maharashtra had remained in contact with the party headed by Uddhav Thackeray. The Shiv Sena UBT leader asserted that this bill has been introduced in an effort to introduce corruption in the system and to allot land valued at two lakh crores to BJP-leaning industrialists.

Sanjay Raut on Saturday said in the press that the BJP had also put pressure on the Naveen Patnaik government's BJD and requested the support of the BJD on the Waqf Bill in the Lok Sabha. While the BJD opposed the bill, they did not send out any whip to their MPs and instructed them to vote as per their conscience.

Sanjay Raut said that they did the same with us, but we did not listen. Till the last moment, senior BJP leaders from Maharashtra and Delhi were in touch with Shiv Sena UBT. The Waqf Amendment Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday night. A day before that, the Waqf Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha. During the discussion on this bill in the Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Raut also targeted the BJP. He had said that 'the government is so concerned about Muslims that even Mohammad Ali Jinnah did not worry so much. Jinnah's soul came from the grave and entered your body. Earlier it seemed that we all together were creating a Hindu nation, now it seems that you are creating a Hindu Pakistan.' Raut called it an exercise by the Trump administration to divert attention from the imposition of a 26 percent tariff on India.