Mumbai A day after rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde was sworn in as chief minister of Maharashtra, party chief Uddhav Thackeray slammed him as a so-called Shiv-Sainik who is not leading the real Sena.
The erstwhile CM also asked Shinde’s supporters to introspect why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is supporting him as chief minister now even though they refused to honour their ‘promise’ in 2019 of sharing the chief minister’s post for two and a half years with the then-ally Shiv Sena.
Thackeray was speaking at Sena Bhavan in front of the media and party supporters for the first time after resigning as chief minister on Wednesday evening.
“Those who have formed the new government, I want to tell them that they have made a so-called Shiv Sainik the CM. I was saying the same thing two and a half years ago. The same formula was decided between me and Amit Shah that Shiv Sena and BJP will share the CM position for half term each. Whatever is happening today would have happened respectfully,” the Shiv Sena chief said.
He also charged the BJP of “backstabbing” Shiv Sena under the garb of making a Shiv Sainik as chief minister of Maharashtra. “Why have you (BJP) done it now and not then when Shiv Sena was officially with you in Maharashtra and at the Centre,” Thackeray asked. “People want to know the reason. Why did you force me to take up the CM position? Had the BJP respected the agreement, there would have been no Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi and a BJP leader would have been CM today,” he said, considering the MVA government completed two and a half years on May 27, 2022.
Questioning the legitimacy of the Shinde-led faction, the Sena president said, “Those who went with BJP should realise that those who did not fulfil their promise two and a half years ago are now backstabbing us in the garb of making a Shiv Sena CM. He (Shinde) is not Sena’s CM because you (BJP) cannot have Sena’s CM by sidelining the party.”
Meanwhile, Shinde told TV9 Marathi channel, “It is because of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis that a Shiv Sainik of Balasaheb (Thackeray) has become the chief minister. It is a matter of grief that Uddhav Thackeray had to resign from the chief minister post.”
Deepak Kesarkar, a spokesperson appointed by the Shinde-led faction did not respond to the allegations made by Thackeray. “Uddhav Thackeray is a big stature leader and we will not speak against him. We will speak at the right time and all the misunderstandings will be sorted out,” Kesarkar said in a press briefing on Friday.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil said that the Shiv Sena leadership abandoned Hindutva for the post of chief minister. “People gave a clear majority to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance formed for Hindutva back in 2019 assembly elections but the Shiv Sena leadership left Hindutva for the chief minister’s position and joined hands with the parties that appease minorities,” Patil said on Friday.
He also alleged that in the last two and a half years of MVA government, Hindutva was in trouble and development work came to a standstill. “After the MVA government was collapsed due to internal strife, the BJP took the initiative to provide alternative to the people,” he insisted.
