Fadnavis ‘being kept in check’ by BJP, Shinde ‘got contract to corner him’: Uddhav's explosive claim

Uddhav Thackeray alleged that Maharashtra deputy chief minister Shinde had received a “contract to corner" CM Devendra Fadnavis”

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday claimed that Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was being kept in check by the BJP central leadership. Thackeray levelled the allegation after six of his nine party MPs switched over to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, an alliance partner of the BJP-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra.

Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra, during the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit at Taj Palace in Delhi, in 2018 (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

During a tour to Shirdi, the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Bhausaheb Wakchaure, one of the six MPs who defected, Thackeray alleged that Shinde had received a “contract to corner Fadnavis”. He claimed the defections were part of a political race between Union home minister Amit Shah and Fadnavis for the post of prime minister in a post-Modi contest.

“Has the RSS become a slave of those BJP leaders and can it not speak against them when its own leaders are cornered?” said the Sena (UBT) chief. “After Union minister Nitin Gadkari, the BJP’s central leadership in Delhi is now trying to cut Fadnavis to size and keep him out of the race for the prime minister’s post,” said Thackeray.

Thackeray backs Fadnavis for PM post

Thackeray said he would support Fadnavis for the post of prime minister. “If someone from Maharashtra becomes prime minister, there is nothing wrong in supporting that. But we will not stand with traitors,” said the Sena (UBT) chief, in an oblique reference to Shinde, who split the Sena and walked away with 40 MPs in 2022.

After visiting the Saibaba temple in Shirdi, Thackeray remarked, “I prayed that Devendra Fadnavis’s chair should be safe. It seems his position is under threat. This is the law of nature. I do not wish ill for anyone and I pray to Sai Baba that such thoughts should never come to me. But everyone has an end,” he said.