Run-up to BMC elections: After campaign tagline hijacked, Sainiks respond #YesWeKnow

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The posts included smartly worded barbs about corruption cases involving leaders such as the Congress’s Narayan Rane and Kripashankar Singh and the NCP’s Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare. Others mocked the MNS for changing the direction of its party symbol — the railway engine — and the BJP for winking at the NCP even while in an alliance with the Sena.

This latest campaign by the Sena activists comes after the Congress, the NCP and the MNS reacted to the Sena’s ‘Did you know’ campaign launched last week. The Sena’s campaign, designed to appeal to non-Marathi voters in the city along with its core constituency of Maharashtrians, focuses on development work carried out by the civic body under the Sena.

The Congress’s counter campaign had focused on the poor condition of civic infrastructure while using the Sena’s tagline and hashtag ‘DidYouKnow?’

Senior Sena leaders, while maintaining that they would use social media aggressively to propagate the work of the party and to counter the opposition parties’ allegations, held that the latest social media posts did not have the Sena’s name or party symbol. “This is the work of a few active Shiv Sainiks who are doing it on their own without the party’s name or symbol. In the coming days, Sainiks who have collected information on corruption by other party leaders will release these in phases,” said a leader.

Harshal Pradhan, media coordinator for the Shiv Sena, said the party would continue to highlight the work carried out by the BMC. “Other parties copying our taglines shows their lack of talent. We are never short of innovative ideas for campaigns,” said Pradhan.