Won't let Mumbai turn into 'another NY': BJP

Mumbai: Alleging a 'jihadist conspiracy' of capturing major cities, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai said it would not let Mumbai become a New York and urged citizens of the city to prevent a 'cultural invasion' prevalent in other cities of the world.

"We saw New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani praising Umar Khalid, who has been arrested under sedition and has been booked under UAPA, and in jail, his bail pleas have been rejected... We must tell Mamdani not to interfere in India's internal affairs. We have to say this today because there is an international conspiracy by some jihadist elements to capture all the cities and to change their colour." said Mumbai BJP president Ameet Satam while campaigning for the party in the Mumbai civic polls.

"They have already done this in other major cities and if an extreme leftist becomes the New York Mayor, we have already seen that in the last two months. His statements show what his policies and intentions are and some of these international powers also desire to do a similar thing in Mumbai. They have agents in Mumbai who want to mount a cultural invasion," Satam added.


He alleged that Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena president, Uddhav Thackeray was part of this conspiracy. "We have seen in some people's rallies that the Pakistani flag was shown, those accused of bomb blast have been part of their political campaign, and Uddhav Thackeray has admitted people who have said Pakistan Zindabad. Their politics is finished but if they associate themselves with those against the country, society and give them strength then Mumbaikars will oppose this."

Satam's remarks are part of a BJP's strategy where they have associated Uddhav Thackeray with the 'Jihadist conspiracy,' in a bid to polarize voters. The party has been using this strategy after the UBT Sena-MNS combine have also been trying to polarise the elections by harping that Marathis should consolidate in favour of the two parties or the city would be run over by Non Maharashtrians.

A month back Satam had said that they would not allow any person with a surname 'Khan' to become the Mayor.