Betrayer Uddhav mustn’t go unpunished, says Union home minister Amit Shah
MUMBAI: Accusing Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray of political as well as ideological betrayal, BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday told his party’s leaders and functionaries in Mumbai that the betrayal should not go unpunished and that the Thackeray-led Sena must be defeated in the upcoming BMC elections.
Shah, sources said, set a target of winning up to 150 seats in the BMC polls and told party cadres that the election will be fought in alliance with chief minister Eknath Shinde’s faction of Shiv Sena.
In his address, Shah said Uddhav Thackeray had betrayed Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology, Hindutva, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Devendra Fadnavis and the voters who had voted for the BJP-Sena alliance in the 2019 assembly elections.
“In politics one can take an insult but not betrayal, and the betrayer must be punished,” Shah was quoted as saying by sources.
BJP, Shah is learnt to have said, is geared to win the civic elections under the leadership of PM Modi. “The people are with the party led by Modi not with the Uddhav Thackeray party that has betrayed ideology,” he said, according to sources. Thackeray’s party has been in power in BMC for over two decades.
Shah addressed party office-bearers and elected representatives at Meghdoot, a government bungalow on Malabar Hill currently allotted to deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis. Shah was in Mumbai to pay his respects to the Lalbaugcha Raja at Parel.
Ashish Shelar, who was recently appointed as BJP’s Mumbai unit president, had sacrificed his cabinet ministership and had been put in charge of the civic elections as the party wants to win the polls, said Shah, according to sources.
Sources said Shah named Uddhav several times in his 20-minute speech. “His (Thackeray’s) party has split because of his greed for power. BJP had nothing to do with it. In 2014, he broke the alliance for only two seats,” Shah reportedly said.
Shah is further learnt to have said, “I have done nothing wrong. I want to once again reiterate that I never promised him (Uddhav) the chief minister’s post. We are not among those who do politics behind closed doors, rather those who do it straight. He has made this up (‘Khayali pulav paka rahe the’). When Devendra went to meet him at Matoshree, Uddhav Thackeray said Amit Shah had told him the CM’s seat will go to the Sena irrespective of the seats they win. Fadnavis called me from Matoshree at 1.30 am. I told him to leave immediately and no such promise had been made, and whatever discussions are to be done will be done by the Central leadership. A few days later Uddhav Thackeray called asking me to come and meet. I said I would come but there will be no discussion on the CM’s post. Devendra will be the CM.”
Attacking Thackeray, he said he had gone with those who had no ideology. “What ideology does the NCP have?” he reportedly asked, adding that NCP only wanted to be in power.
Later in the evening, Shah had a meeting with the BJP state core committee leaders. Shah laid emphasis on the expansion of the party along with the Eknath Shinde faction of the Sena, said sources. Shah, who arrived in Mumbai on Sunday night, held an hour-long meeting with CM Eknath Shinde and Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis at the Sahyadri guest house on Monday.
