Exclusive: Piyush Goyal's '0+0=0' Swipe On Thackeray Unity In BMC Polls

The people of Mumbai have a large heart and nobody is an "outsider", Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said, countering the opposition's 'Marathi Manoos' narrative for the upcoming election to the Maximum City's civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. He also took a swipe at the reunion of the Thackeray brothers, saying that "zero plus zero is equal to zero". The minister spoke to NDTV's CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Rahul Kanwal, Managing Editor, Padmaja Joshi, and Associate Editor Puja Bhardwaj at NDTV's Power Play for the upcoming civic polls.

He said there can be no Viksit Bharat without a Viksit Mumbai and Viksit Maharashtra and said the BJP is committed to the city's development.

"For years, Uddhav Thackeray ran the BMC, but every year, we would face monsoon woes. After the monsoon, road repair would begin, but by the time they would be completed, the rains would return," he said.

But after the Maharashtra government took control following the end of the incumbent corporators' tenure, the Devendra Fadnavis government fixed the roads with concrete and cement for a permanent solution, Goyal said. "Fadnavis ji and (Eknath) Shinde ji came, the Mahayuti government was formed. Since the corporation was under the state government, serious action was taken, and new projects for treating Mumbai's sewage are coming up," he said.

The people, he said, are upset with opposition parties. "You must have seen the statement of Raj Thackeray's son that they will stop the trains headed to Mumbai and not allow anyone to come to Mumbai. Will the country run like this? If someone in Punjab or Haryana says they won't give wheat, rotis won't be made in Mumbai. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh can say they have coal and they won't supply power to Mumbai. Such a mindset is very petty, and the intelligent people of Mumbai are upset," he said.  

Responding to a question on Mumbai's traffic issues due to ongoing work and dug-up roads in most parts of the city, the Union Minister said several infrastructure projects are being executed for permanent connectivity solutions. "The people of Mumbai are willing to suffer short-term pain for long-term gain," he said, saying this is a futuristic vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.   

Goyal claimed that veteran politician Sharad Pawar and his daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule regret their decision to join the opposition front against the BJP and are now attempting a course correction by coming together with Ajit Pawar for the Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation election. "Why would Ajit Pawar go back? His party won so many seats in the Assembly and local body elections. It is Sharad Pawar's party that was wiped out. It is good if Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule have understood their mistake and accepted Ajit Pawar's leadership," he said.