MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who faced a major political crisis in his party when the Shiv Sena split in 2022, categorically stated that the doors are closed for all his former party colleagues who left his faction and joined his rival Eknath Shinde’s camp.
This statement by Thackeray came after Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) performed well in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls in the state.
“Absolutely not. Those who left me will not be taken back,” Uddhav Thackeray said when he was asked whether he would be taking back those leaders who had left his faction. When Sharad Pawar was asked the same question, he said, “There is no question of taking them back.”
Responding to whether he will be accepting new leaders into his party, Uddhav Thackeray said, “We will move forward with all those people who stayed with us, and struggled with us. If some people want to join us, we will see…”
Buoyed by the Lok Sabha poll results, Uddhav Thackeray also announced that the MVA will contest the upcoming Assembly elections in the state together.
“When three parties come together, it means everyone is together and everyone will fight together,” he said.
In response to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “vote jihad” claim at the Opposition parties, Thackeray said, “What vote jihad they are talking about? PM Modi himself said that Muslims are his friends and often come to his place for food.
“All people from all castes and all sections voted for us,” he asserted.
In a dig at the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray questioned who would be their Chief Minister.
“Who will be the CM face of Mahayuti (BJP,shivsena and NCP)? What face is left of them? Their condition is serious,” he said.
Hitting out at the BJP’s narratives during their electoral campaigns, Thackeray said, “The narrative that they wanted to set about Mangalsutra, achhe din, 15 lakh Rupees, what about those? If we start from 2014, were all these narratives false? What about Modi guarantee?…Were all these false?” Continuing with his attack on PM Modi, he said, “He had to lose vote share not only due to farmers issues but other factors were involved as well.”
Speaking about the caste census promised by the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who was also in the joint press conference, said, “This is necessary for our country.”
On the Maratha reservations issue, Pawar said, “The government should stick to the GR that it had released on this issue.”
Pawar also took a dig at the Prime Minister by thanking him for holding roadshows and rallies at places where his party coincidentally won.
“Wherever the Prime Minister’s roadshow and rally took place, we won. That is why I consider it my duty to thank the Prime Minister,” he said.
The BJP dipped to nine seats in Maharashtra against 23 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The vote share stood at 26.18 per cent. The Congress, on the other hand, marginally improved its seat share by securing 13 seats in the state.The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won seven and one seats respectively, taking the total tally of the NDA to 17.
The BJP victory tally was much lower than its 2019 tally of 303 and the 282 seats it had won in 2014. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats compared to 52 that it had won in 2019 and 44 seats in 2014. The INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions from exit polls.