BJP has no right to preach us, says Uddhav Thackeray

Thackeray, who is on a two-day Vidarbha tour – considered a BJP stronghold – said that earlier MLAs or parties used to split but now parties are being broken into pieces. “Deceit of such a proportion is being seen for the first time in Indian politics

NAGPUR: A week after Ajit Pawar-led a split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said he is waiting to see how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) handles its new ‘riff-raffs’.

Thackeray began his tour on Sunday after a “darshan” of Pohradevi shrine in the Washim district. (HT Photo)

Thackeray, who is on a two-day Vidarbha tour – considered a BJP stronghold – said that earlier MLAs or parties used to split but now parties are being broken into pieces. “Deceit of such a proportion is being seen for the first time in Indian politics. BJP’s politics is bad for the country and our state,” said the former Maharashtra CM, who lashed out at BJP. “I do not think the BJP deserves anything to be said about. It has no right to preach to us. I am just waiting to see how the BJP handles the new riff-raffs.”

The same day, the Sena (UBT) workers pulled down posters of Amravati Lok Sabha member Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana in Amravati on the eve of the visit of Uddhav Thackeray there. The Rana couple had claimed they would recite Hanuman Chalisa from 9am to 2pm at Girls High School square at Amravati on Monday and their supporters had put up posters informing about it.

Thackeray reiterated his claim of a “decision” between him and Union minister Amit Shah before the 2019 polls. It was decided the Shiv Sena and the BJP will have its chief minister for two-and-a-half years each, he said. “I swear on the name of Pohradevi (a deity of Wanjara community) that Amit Shah made such a promise during a meeting with me at my residence. Had the BJP kept that promise, this situation would not have arisen where the party’s old guards are being ignored to keep new entrants in good humour,” he quipped.

“Today, the BJP and Shiv Sena chief ministers would have completed their tenure. If that had been done, the old BJP workers would have not been required to pick up the carpets of other parties,” Uddhav said.

Against the backdrop of yet another political turmoil in Maharashtra owing to NCP split, Thackeray’s Vidarbha visit assumes significance as questions were being raised on the fate of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which he once headed as the chief minister. Thackeray began his tour on Sunday after a “darshan” of Pohradevi shrine in the Washim district.

Later addressing a gathering on Sunday evening at Digras, the assembly constituency represented by cabinet minister Sanjay Rathod, on Sunday evening, Thackeray said that his fight is against the BJP’s ill-motive to finish off opponent parties. On the Modi government’s move on uniform civil code, he said it’s good that there will be one nation and one law. But it should be discussed with the stakeholders first before enacting it.

“One nation, one law can be understood. But we will never accept one nation, one party plan of the BJP,” he said while pointing to the recent split in NCP “engineered” by the BJP.

“They are breaking other parties, bringing them to their own party. Those who were the most corrupt have been declared clean after joining BJP, he said and asked how now those “corrupt leaders” are sharing photos with Modi in their posters?” said Uddhav.

He also pointed out that when a BJP leader (Kirit Somaiya) took a cudgel against the corruption of a Lok Sabha member from Yavatmal, Bhavna Gawli that led to raids by ED in her establishments, later she tied “rakhi” to Modi. “Now the time has come to expose such dual character of the larger party of the country,” he said.

On the issue of petitions seeking disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, Thackeray said the state Assembly speaker will have to decide on it within a given framework. “If the speaker tries to bypass it, the Supreme Court’s doors are always open for us,” he said.

The state Assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar on Saturday said notices have been issued to 40 MLAs of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and 14 of the Uddhav Thackeray faction, seeking their replies on disqualification petitions against them. They were given seven days to file their replies.

Thackeray asserted that the top court’s verdict is crystal clear. The Speaker will have to make a decision in that framework. “Any decision outside of it will be against democracy and I am sure that the Speaker will not do such a thing. And if it is done, we can always approach the court again,” he further said.

Narvekar’s move comes a week after Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Sunil Prabhu moved the Supreme Court over the Speaker’s inaction following the top court verdict on the power struggle in Maharashtra between Eknath Shinde- and Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena.

After interacting with party workers in Yavatmal and Amravati, Thackeray would interact and address party workers from Nagpur district on Monday. The objective is to have a dialogue with all the stakeholders of the party in their respective districts to understand their problems. “These cannot be called election meetings, but he will advise party stakeholders to be ready for next year’s Lok Sabha and assembly polls,” says a senior party leader.

Reacting on the Vidarbha tour of Thackeray, the state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said why he never remembered the region when he was the chief minister of Maharashtra. “In two-and-a-half-years in government Uddhav never visited Mantralaya,” Bawankule said in a scathing attack on Thackeray. “Now he is visiting Vidarbha for two days. When he was the chief minister, he never remembered the backward region,” he pointed out.

The state BJP chief continued, “You may make any number of tours across the state, but in reality, you have been exposed,” he said, adding that Thackeray had betrayed the BJP and the Hindutva of Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray.

The Maharashtra minister for culture and forest and senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar has also criticised the Sena (UBT) chief and said that if he had interacted with his colleagues and party leaders at the right time, such a situation would not have come. If he really nurtured the party and its rank and file, the faith of the workers and colleagues on him would have been maintained.

Mungantiwar said, before criticising the BJP, he should also re-assess himself. “There is no point in blaming us. We are doing politics of patriotism. Who stabbed the former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil in the back?” he further asked.