Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde continues to maintain that his rebellion was only for preserving Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s ideology and not for any post
Aaditya Thackeray at an event on Friday described all the 40 MLAs and MPs, who ditched the Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena faction to move to CM Eknath Shinde’s camp, as “gaddaars (traitors)”. Both the factions have new names to contest elections, but claim to be the ‘real Shiv Sena’.
Speaking about the Shiv Sena's future, Aaditya said, “They (Eknath Shinde-BJP) have run away with 40 gaddaar MLAs and 12 gaddaar MPs from our party. I call this gaddaari, because there is no other appropriate word to describe people who run away to another party. If this gets legitimised and happens across the country, you will have random people claiming names and logos of parties.”
Shinde came to power after the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government collapsed in June. Uddhav quit as Maharashtra CM after the Supreme Court ruled that he must prove his majority. He was left with only 13 MLAs after a Shinde-led revolt that played out in three BJP-ruled states—Gujarat, Assam and Goa.
Aaditya further added ‘40’ in the fantasy novel Arabian Nights alludes to the story of Ali Baba and 40 thieves. “To steal a mandate and an elected government, a pre-poll alliance had been agreed upon with the BJP on the basis of 2.5 years (power sharing). If that had been adhered to, by now Devendra (Fadnavis) ji would have been the CM. But we believe in our principles,” he pointed out.
At the same event, CM Shinde said that the Thackerays had nothing to say except call his faction “traitors”. “One can bribe two or three people, not 50. Instead of introspecting on what went wrong, he (Uddhav Thackeray) has been leveling accusations against us. Our MLAs were angry, people wanted Shiv Sena to get out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. We stood for the Sena-BJP alliance for which people had voted,” Shinde stated.
Shinde revealed that Uddhav had told him about Amit Shah offering assurance that the BJP was willing to share the chief minister’s post with the Sena after the 2019 elections. “But no one else was present at that meeting,” he added. He later asked PM Modi and Shah about this meeting and was told that the BJP always honours its commitments. His rebellion was only for preserving Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s ideology and not for any post, the chief minister said.
“Balasaheb spoke about abolishing Article 370 and constructing the Ram temple. Who is doing these things?” he asked. Shinde, however, evaded a replying to whether he would be the face of the BJP alliance in the 2024 Assembly elections.
“Even now I have no ambition to become CM. Whatever we did was in the interest of the state and country. People will decide,” he said. Shinde also said that Deputy CM Fadnavis and have “good tuning”. “He has been chief minister earlier and his experience matters,” Shinde said.