Next Maharashtra CM from Sena: Uddhav Thackeray

The Sena chief slammed alliance partner BJP, while addressing farmers at Parner in Ahmednagar

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said the next Maharashtra chief minister would be from his party after the Assembly polls in 2019. During an interaction with farmers at Parner in Ahmednagar, Thackeray reiterated that his party will not enter into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it has failed to solve the problems of the common man.

The Shiv Sena has already passed a resolution on fighting the 2019 Assembly elections alone. (HT FILE)

The Shiv Sena has already passed a resolution in January that it will go solo for the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. In the meantime, the Sena would continue to play the dual role of being a part of the state government and acting as an Opposition by attacking the BJP over various issues. The two saffron parties have had a blow-hot, blow-cold relationship in the past three years.

Slamming the BJP in Parner, which is about 230km from Mumbai, Thackeray said, “The Centre has not solved the issues of the people. The farmers of the country are distressed. The government is out to shut the district cooperative banks, which is the real bank of the farmers where they deposit their hard-earned money. Today, they are looting the banks and fleeing the country, but the government is not doing anything. We are going to contest the next elections on our own, and I want to see to it that saffron flutters all over Maharashtra. The next chief minister will be from Sena.”

Meanwhile, Thackeray also took a dig at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar for opposing caste-based reservations in education and employment. Speaking at a Sena-organised function to celebrate ‘Marathi Bhasha Divas’ at Rang Sharda in Bandra, Thackeray said it took Pawar 50 years to endorse Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s views that reservation should be on economic considerations. “I got to hear that once again I have been give advice that when Sena was in power earlier, it did not do anything. Now that Sena is again in power, it should get reservations on economic grounds. This is good; you are putting your incompetence of 50-60 years of rule on us to for your political gains. You were the chief minister [of Maharashtra], a union minister, then why did you build these walls on the basis of caste?” Thackeray asked.

The Sena chief slammed the Maharashtra government over the goof-up in the Marathi translation of the Governor’s address on Monday. “If we cannot get the translation of the Governors’ speech in Marathi then how do we believe that this is Maharashtra’s government? A silly reason was given that the translator did not come on time,” he said. Thackeray also attacked state revenue minister Chandrakant Patil during his speech. He said that Patil, who recited a Kannada song last month which roughly translated as “One should be born in Karnataka if one is born at all”.