Picture : Twitter / ANI
In blistering attack on its former ally, BJP, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has said his party will try to expand its footprint outside the state and aim for a national role . Hitting out the BJP, Uddhav accused BJP of using Hindutva for its political convenience.
He also said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – led by the BJP – shrank as old constituents like Akali Dal and Shiv Sena have already walked out of the bloc.
Addressing Shiv Sena members virtually on the 96th birth anniversary of the party founder and his father Bal Thackeray, Mr Thackeray said the Sena had aligned with BJP for taking forward the agenda of Hindutva through power.
“Shiv Sena had aligned with BJP as it wanted power for Hindutva. Sena never used Hindutva for the sake of power,” he said.
The Sena has left the BJP and not Hindutva. I believe that BJP’s opportunistic Hindutva is only for power, he said.
Mr Thackeray also said that the 25 years the Sena spent with BJP as an ally were wasted. The Sena fell out with BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra polls and tied up with NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
We took BJP from bottom to top in Maharashtra. After Babri, there was a Shiv Sena wave in Northern India,if we had fought polls at that time, there would have been our(Shiv Sena) PM in country but we left it for them. BJP only uses Hindutva for power: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut pic.twitter.com/cDQKh8lzGJ
— ANI (@ANI) January 24, 2022
“We supported the BJP wholeheartedly to enable them to fulfill their national ambitions. The understanding was they will go national while we will lead in Maharashtra. But we were betrayed and attempts were made to destroy us in our home. So we had to hit back, ” Mr Thackeray said, justifying his decision to align with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party after the 2019 elections.
He alleged that BJP uses and dumps its allies as per its political convenience.
Responding to BJP’s jibes that Sena had abandoned Hindutva for power, he said his party had left BJP and not the ideology of Hindutva.
“BJP doesn’t mean Hindutva. I stand by my comment that Shiv Sena had wasted 25 years in alliance with BJP,” he said.
Referring to recent Nagar Panchayat elections where Sena fared poorly and secured the fourth position, the Maharashtra Chief Minister said leaders of Sena, including himself, didn’t take local body polls seriously and campaign accordingly.
“On the contrary, our new allies Congress and NCP have built institutions at the grassroots. We too have to work in that direction. In the last two years, we lost two Legislative Council seats held by us in the biennial elections. I think we lost due to the neglect and not due to sabotage in our ranks,” he said.
He said this setback notwithstanding, Sena should aim at consolidating its presence at the national level and resolve to capture power in Delhi.
