Uddhav Thackeray changed colours like chameleon: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ekanth Shinde
Eknath Shinde
on Friday hit out at
Shiv Sena
(UBT) chief
Uddhav Thackeray
, accusing him of betraying
BJP
's
Devendra Fadnavis
in 2019 by playing "opportunist politics" akin to a chameleon that changes its colours.
"Now, you offer a bouquet to Fadnavis, and also criticise PM Modi and Amit Shah, which shows a 'chemical locha' in your mind," Shinde said.
Replying to the opposition's last week motion in the legislative council, Shinde said, without naming Thackeray, that Fadnavis made "40-50 calls" after the alliance of the undivided Shiv Sena and BJP retained its majority in the 2019 assembly elections. But there was no response to the BJP leader's calls, he said.
Shinde said it was on his request that Fadnavis had agreed to cede Mumbai mayor post to Shiv Sena in 2017, after Sena won 84 seats and BJP 82 in civic polls. "But he [Thackeray] betrayed Fadnavis in 2019 [by walking out of the alliance]." A day earlier, Fadnavis, in a tongue-in-cheek remark in the House, had asked Thackeray to come over to the ruling side.
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Criticising Sena (UBT) over its recent Marathi stance, Shinde said Thackeray dumped the proposal to set up a music university in the name of Lata Mangeshkar and objected to the Mangeshkar award being conferred upon PM Modi.
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"Now ahead of elections, you have joined hands with your cousin [MNS chief Raj Thackeray] for Marathi cause."
"We did not commit the sin of shutting down Marathi schools and starting international schools," he said, referring to BMC, then controlled by the undivided Shiv Sena, closing some Marathi schools for want of students and starting an IB school.
The issue of 'imposition' of Hindi should have ended after the govt withdrew the GRs making Hindi "mandatory" from Class 1, he said. The Mashelkar committee, which recommended a three-language formula with mandatory Hindi and English, had been formed by the Thackeray-led MVA govt, and it had accepted the report on Jan 27, 2022, Shinde said.
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