Govt on dialysis does not last long: Mukhtar Naqvi on Maharashtra crisis

Dummy cars and a government on dialysis do not last long, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Thursday while taking potshots at the political crisis in Maharashtra where the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government is fighting for its survival.

Naqvi was talking to reporters after voting in the Rampur Lok Sabha by-election.

Responding to a question on what would happen in Maharashtra, he recited a couplet from the famous "Mughal-e-Azam" song, "Jab raat hai aisi matwali to subah ka alam kya hoga."

"Dummy cars and a government on dialysis do not last long," the BJP leader said.

The future of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra is in jeopardy after a section of Shiv Sena legislators rebelled.

Referring to the by-elections, Naqvi, the Union minister for Minority Affairs, said the BJP has made all preparations for this electoral exam and now people will have to decide.

"But we are fully confident the BJP will win," he said.

"Azam Khan's stronghold here has cracked and will collapse after the results are declared on June 26," the one-time MP from Rampur who considers the constituency as his 'karmabhoomi' claimed.

Bypolls are being held for three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats spread across five states and one Union territory. These include by-elections in the two Lok Sabha seats of Azamgarh and Rampur, considered bastions of the Samajwadi Party.