Yamini Jadhav, 57, the Shiv Sena MLA from Byculla said that the Muslim community is upset with Shiv Sena (UBT) as its MPs disappeared from the parliamentary discussion on Waqf bill even though the community showerd their votes on them in the Lok Sabha elections.
Jadhav, a former BMC corporator for two terms and now an MLA from Byculla, visited the FPJ office on Friday and interacted with journalists as part of ‘FPJ Dialogue’ series.
Jadhav said that the Muslim community came out in large numbers during the Lok Sabha elections and showered their votes on Shiv Sena (UBT) but the representatives in the parliament disappeared when the community was expecting them to take a stand for them in the parliamentary discussion on Waqf bill.
“I did not campaign to get Muslim votes specifically but UBT candidates did and the community showered them with their votes. It was mandatory for them to speak up for the community during the parliamentary discussion but all the nine MPs mass bunked the discussion following the instructions from their leader,’ said Jadhav.
Refuting the opposition’s allegations of Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme being Mahayuti government’s election ‘jumla’, Jadhav said that the scheme was planned much earlier to the elections and accordingly a huge sum of money was allocated for it in the state budget. She claimed that 46,000 women from her constituency have received benefits under the scheme and the figure might cross 50,000 post elections.
“I have met the beneficiaries and their emotions tell us that for the first time someone has thought about them. One of the beneficiaries in my constituency bought her diabetes medicines for the first time with the scheme money, one invested her four months of aid while one started a small-scale industry. This scheme will help women from each household to come out as entrepreneurs,” she added.
The split in Shiv Sena has also led to a split in Marathi voters across the state. However, Jadhav is confident that a large part of the voters are on her side as she lost only 10,000 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections compared to the 2019 assembly elections in which she received 51,000 votes. “I am being welcomed by ‘laadli behen’ in every household and every human has a soft corner towards someone who has worked for them. I have never been an MLA figure to my voters but have been a mother, sister, daughter and friend. They know that I have been available and approachable to them at any hour,” Jadhav said.
Jadhav took a dig against her competitor candidate from Shiv Sena (UBT) Manoj Jamsutkar and alleged he is a ‘gaddar’ as he jumped from Shiv Sena to NCP to Congress to MNS and came back to Shiv Sena only because he was not getting a chance to contest elections. She also alleged that he was planning to jump from Shiv Sena for the second time to BJP due to hopelessness of getting ticket against her but the split in party cleared his way. She also took a dig at the Shiv Sena (UBT) for sidelining senior leaders like Ram Sawant, Baban Gaonkar and Ramakant Rahate to give ticket to new faces who were very young into politics.
Talking about the redevelopment issue in her constituency, Jadhav said that her vision is to enforce cluster redevelopment in assistance with the new amendment in the housing policy which mandates redevelopment even if the owner opposes it. She said that she will try to remove the obstacle of the minimum area for redevelopment by decreasing the cap from 4,000 sq mtr to 3,000 sq mtr which will boost cluster redevelopment across the city.
She added that through her efforts, Indian Navy personnel will get an office and a jetty estimated to be worth Rs60 Cr on BPT land to patrol on the eastern coast. She also said that she will demand central government-owned land to provide housing accommodation to Class 4 employees of state government. She also expressed satisfaction over her successful attempts of pushing the government to allow women police personnel to wear sarees from the first month of pregnancy to prevent miscarriage.
Talking about the recent controversy that sparked after she distributed burqas among Muslim women in her constituency, Jadhav said that she was proud of it and will distribute them next year as well. “I distributed Paithni sarees to Hindu women and on the next day I distributed burqas. It was out of simple and clean emotions that I want to give them something that can be useful to them. I don’t care if a few people from the BJP did not like since I know how to respect the multi-faith population in my constituency and I have the right to do that,” she added.
Jadhav claimed that her distribution of burqas is different than Shiv Sena (UBT)’s appeasement of minority and alleged that the latter does not care about the Muslim community. “They have set a narrative that we think about the community only during elections. We follow Balasaheb’s Hindutva which is not communal. We had a Muslim minister in the state government during his leadership and even the BJP has had Muslim ministers in the state and the centre,” she added.
