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Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has accused the former ally-turned-foe Bharatiya Janata Party of doing “power jihad” by breaking political parties to form a government.
Hitting back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his “Aurangzeb Fan Club” barb, Thackeray dubbed the senior BJP leader a political descendant of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan king who defeated the Marathas in the third battle of Panipat.
Addressing party workers at a rally in Pune, he also accused the Eknath Shinde-led dispensation of bribing voters by distributing “revdis” (freebies) to them under the garb of schemes like the Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana, under which eligible women will get Rs 1,500 every month.
Accusing the former ally of breaking parties, Thackeray said, “If Muslims are with us after we explained to them our Hindutva, then we are (according to the BJP) the Aurangzeb Fan Club. Then what you are doing is power jihad.”
Shah had dubbed Thackeray “the head of the Aurangzeb fan club” sitting with people who sought pardon for 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon, apparently referring to Shiv Sena (undivided) severing ties with BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections and joining hands with the Congress and NCP (undivided) to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
“Amit Shah is the political descendant of Ahmad Shah Abdali. Even he was a Shah. That was Ahmad Shah and he is Amit Shah. Will he give us the teachings of Hindutva? You ate the birthday cake of Nawaz Sharif and we should learn Hindutva from you?” Thackeray said.
Thackeray asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain the leakage in the new Parliament building, built barely a year ago, instead of questioning Congress’ achievements in the last 60-70 years.
“This government (at the Centre) is a leakage government. There are paper leaks also,” he said.Thackeray accused the BJP of engineering division among castes and practising Hindutva taught by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
“This is not the Hindutva taught to us by Chhatrapati Shivaji. This (the one practised by the BJP) must have been taught by Aurangzeb which we do not believe in. Our Hindutva is the one that takes forward the Maharashtra dharma of Chhatrapati Shivaji,” he said.
