In a dig at the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray questioned who would be their Chief Minister…reports Asian Lite News
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who faced a major political crisis in his party when the Shiv Sena split in 2022, categorically stated that the doors are closed for all his former party colleagues who left his faction and joined his rival Eknath Shinde’s camp.
This statement by Thackeray came after Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) performed well in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls in the state.
“Absolutely not. Those who left me will not be taken back,” Uddhav Thackeray said when he was asked whether he would be taking back those leaders who had left his faction. When Sharad Pawar was asked the same question, he said, “There is no question of taking them back.”
Responding to whether he will be accepting new leaders into his party, Uddhav Thackeray said, “We will move forward with all those people who stayed with us, and struggled with us. If some people want to join us, we will see…”
Buoyed by the Lok Sabha poll results, Uddhav Thackeray also announced that the MVA will contest the upcoming Assembly elections in the state together.
“When three parties come together, it means everyone is together and everyone will fight together,” he said.
In response to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “vote jihad” claim at the Opposition parties, Thackeray said, “What vote jihad they are talking about? PM Modi himself said that Muslims are his friends and often come to his place for food.
“All people from all castes and all sections voted for us,” he asserted.
In a dig at the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray questioned who would be their Chief Minister.
“Who will be the CM face of Mahayuti (BJP,shivsena and NCP)? What face is left of them? Their condition is serious,” he said.
Hitting out at the BJP’s narratives during their electoral campaigns, Thackeray said, “The narrative that they wanted to set about Mangalsutra, achhe din, 15 lakh Rupees, what about those? If we start from 2014, were all these narratives false? What about Modi guarantee?…Were all these false?”
Continuing with his attack on PM Modi, he said, “He had to lose vote share not only due to farmers issues but other factors were involved as well.”
Speaking about the caste census promised by the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who was also in the joint press conference, said, “This is necessary for our country.”
On the Maratha reservations issue, Pawar said, “The government should stick to the GR that it had released on this issue.”
Pawar also took a dig at the Prime Minister by thanking him for holding roadshows and rallies at places where his party coincidentally won.
“Wherever the Prime Minister’s roadshow and rally took place, we won. That is why I consider it my duty to thank the Prime Minister,” he said.
The BJP dipped to nine seats in Maharashtra against 23 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The vote share stood at 26.18 per cent. The Congress, on the other hand, marginally improved its seat share by securing 13 seats in the state.The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won seven and one seats respectively, taking the total tally of the NDA to 17.
The BJP victory tally was much lower than its 2019 tally of 303 and the 282 seats it had won in 2014. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats compared to 52 that it had won in 2019 and 44 seats in 2014. The INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions from exit polls. (ANI)
BJP takes jibe at MVA
In response to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the party’s poor performance in the state in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shaina NC said that the BJP and the NDA government do not need the certificate of the ‘Maha Vinash Aghadi’ as people have given their mandate.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party and the NDA government do not need the certificate of the ‘Maha Vinash Aghadi’. The people have given the mandate and the NDA government has received the certificate of the people…,” Shaina NC said in a video statement on Saturday.
Hitting out at the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the opposition coalition in Maharashtra, Shaina said that the undivided Shiv Sena could do away with their ideology for the sake of power.
“These ‘Maha Vinash Aghadi’ people talk big here, perhaps they have forgotten that if they can cancel their ideology for the allure of power, then they should not give us a speech here,” she sad.
Slamming Uddhav Thackeray for his raising apprehensions about the tenure of the NDA government at the Centre, Shaina pointed out that the ruling NDA government has won 300 seats in total and hence he should not be worried.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party has got 240 seats under the leadership of PM Modi and crossed 300 with the NDA. So don’t worry about us. Think about Maharashtra because you are so desperate for power that you can’t make any statement…,” she said.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale who is the chief of the Republican Party of India and is in alliance with the BJP, said that the ruling Mahayuti alliance will defeat the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the upcoming Assembly polls.
“Maharashtra will have Assembly polls in a few months now. Uddhav Thackeray is saying that elections are to save the Constitution but our polls will be to remove UBT Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Rahul Gandhi’s Congress…,” Athawale said.
“We (Mahayuti) have more than 240 MLAs with us…they (MVA) can say whatever they want…we will come again for the next five years…,” he added.
Athawale said that the reason behind the NDA’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls is that the INDIA bloc was successful in spreading the narrative that the BJP will change the Constitution if it wins the poll with an overwhelming majority.
“We got fewer numbers this time (in Lok Sabha elections)…the reason for that is that the INDIA bloc spread rumours like the Constitution will be changed…,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has got only 0.3 per cent more votes than the Mahayuti alliance and should not start “daydreaming”.
“In the Lok Sabha elections, Maha Vikas Aghadi got 0.3 per cent more votes (than the Mahayuti alliance). If we talk about Mumbai we got 2 lakh votes more,” Bawankule said.
In response to Thackeray’s dig at the Mahayuti alliance for questioning who would be their Chief Minister after the Assembly polls, Bawankule said, “There are five contenders for the post of CM in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
“The Maharashtra BJP chief said that they will fix their shortcomings but after securing only 0.3 per cent more votes the Opposition should refrain from “daydreaming”.”They (MVA) have only got 0.3 per cent more votes. We have accepted that we will correct our mistakes, we will work in those sections where we faltered. We will work among those sections of people where we could not win their trust. But this does not mean that they should not start speaking about Chief Ministership now. People in the Maha Vikas Aghadi have started daydreaming,” Bawankule said.