Uddhav on break-up with BJP in Maharashtra: Did I ask for moon and stars?
Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray slammed his party’s estranged ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), over their break-up, after the latter he said “did not honour the promise of equally sharing chief ministership”. Thackeray, in his first interview to party mouthpiece Saamana after becoming CM, said he had not asked for “the moon and stars” from BJP, and wanted the chief minister’s post to be shared so as to fulfil a promise he made to his father, the late Bal Thackeray.
Thackeray said the three-party alliance between Shiv Sena, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra can’t be called “immoral”, and it isn’t his party’s deviation from Hindutva ideology. The CM blamed BJP for the change in power equations in the state, and said even the BJP has joined hands with several parties with different ideologies at the state and national level.
“They [BJP] did not keep their promise made to us before the Lok Sabha elections. Shiv Sena had decided to go solo in the polls, but the BJP leadership approa-ched us for an alliance and we honoured their request. I even went for the nomination filing of Narendrabhai [Modi] and Amitbhai [Shah] to Varanasi and Ahmedabad. I did this for Hindutva and even campaigned for the alliance. What did we expect in turn?” said Thackeray.
“Did I ask for the moon and stars? I only expected the promise made to us to be honoured,” said Thackeray. “I had promised my father that a Shiv Sainik would sit in chief minister’s chair and I had decided to go to any extent to fulfil it. Had they honoured the promise, I would not have been in the chair. Some another Shiv Sainik would have occupied it.”
Sena joined hands with NCP and Congress to form the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in November last year after their three-decade-old alliance with BJP ended. Sena and BJP could not arrive at a consensus over sharing of the chief minister’s post for two-and-a half years.
Speaking about BJP’s allegations that Thackeray had compromised “Hinduvta ideology and principles”, the chief minister questioned the former’s alliances with Nitish Kumar, Mehbooba Mufti and Mamata Banerjee.
“Have I converted to some other religion? One should not be under the impression that theirs is the final word [on Hindutva]… They talk about our ideology, how many ideologies have come together in the NDA government at the Centre? Does your ideology match with that of Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan? Did it match with Mehbooba Mufti, Chandrababu Naidu and Mamata Banerjee when they were in power with the BJP?”
“We are firm on our Hindutva... Is it written in Constitution that what they [BJP] says is Hindutva,” said Thackeray.
Thackeray said the Maharashtra BJP leaders have “no right to criticise” him for forging an alliance with Congress and NCP, as the latter had inducted key leaders from these parties for “political gain”. “Many Congress, NCP leaders were inducted in BJP and were made MPs and MLAs. Was that based on ideology? The leaders, who had attacked Modi, were given entry into BJP and latter Modi went and campaigned for them. What type of morality is this? We do not need to learn ethics from them,” said the chief minister.
Reacting to the interview, BJP leader and former minister Ashish Shelar said Thackeray was expected to “chart out the roadmap for development of various stakeholders of the society; instead he has spent time on explaining why he formed government with NCP and Congress”.
“We were expecting him to speak about his plans to generate employment for youth, doubling the income of farmers, growth of the state, but he has failed to do so in the first part of the interview. He is talking about the induction of leaders from other parties into the BJP, but even Shiv Sena is not an exception to this. Thackeray’s explanation over his act of joining hands with Congress and NCP is out of guilt of an alliance formed for political gain,” said Shelar.