‘Scared BJP-Shinde desperately trying to prevent alliance with MNS': Thackeray
MUMBAI: Emphasising the need to protect the interests of Mumbai, Marathi and Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, addressing the speculation around his party's alliance with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, said that he would do 'whatever the people of Maharashtra want'. The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief was speaking at the 59th anniversary function of the Shiv Sena, and his aggressive speech sounded the bugle for the upcoming BMC polls.
Thackeray declared that the BJP and Shinde were desperately trying to prevent his alliance with his estranged cousin's party in order to prevent the Sena (UBT) from returning to power in Mumbai. They do not want the Marathi manoos to unite and are organising meetings for this,' he said. The efforts, he added, also stemmed from the BJP-Shinde Sena's obeisance towards Gautam Adani. Lambasting the stamp duty waiver to Adani's Dharavi Redevelopment Project, he said, 'They are fearful about what will happen to Adani if we come back to power. As Adani is their master, in order to serve his interests, these servants are disturbing the process of unity of the Marathi manoos.'
Moving on to film-inspired histrionics, Thackeray cited a 1990 film, Prahar, in which Nana Patekar, a long-time Sena votary, had played an army man. 'The BJP and Shinde want to finish the Thackeray brand and our Shiv Sena,' he said. 'In Prahar, Nana Patekar challenges the goons to kill him. I am similarly daring the BJP and Shinde: 'I am standing here, come on, kill me.' But remember, when you come to kill me, I will send you back on a stretcher in an ambulance. We will win Mumbai and our saffron flag will dominate the BMC again.'
Thackeray also urged his party workers to be alert to the BJP's plan 'to divide the people in the name of religion, caste and now language on the eve of the polls'. 'I have no problem with Hindi but I will not allow compulsory Hindi in primary education,' he said. 'They created conflict among Hindus over caste and now they are using language,' he said. 'People from North India living in Mumbai were associated with the Shiv Sena after the riots in 1992. With this Marathi-Hindi conflict, they want to create a divide between North Indians and our party. So be aware of this politics of divide and rule.'
The Sena (UBT) chief said that such conflicts also had another purpose: to divert the attention of people away from the BMC's scams and the state government's corruption. To underline this, he gave the example of the concrete road scam and the Supreme Court's directive to cancel MMRDA's hugely inflated road works tender.
Amid the controversy over his party's expelled leader Sudhakar Badgujar joining the BJP, Thackeray said the BJP was engineering defections from other parties by using power, and added that it betrayed its inability to develop new leadership in its own party. 'I pity the original BJP workers, as outsider leaders are enjoying positions of power and ruling them,' he quipped.
Thackeray also criticised PM Narendra Modi by pointing out that not a single country stood in support of India against Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attacks. 'Even PM Modi's friend Donald Trump invited the army chief of Pakistan,' he said. 'We supported the government in the war situation. But now I feel that India needs a prime minister who will look after the nation, since Modi only looks after the BJP. We also need another union home minister, as all Amit Shah is busy with is breaking other parties.'
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