Addressing a gathering of party workers at Yavatmal on Sunday, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said if BJP had stuck to its 2019 promise of sharing the chief minister's post with his party then today the saffron party's members would not have been 'busy serving politicians from other parties'.Thackeray also said he is waiting to see how the BJP handles its new "riff-raffs". Last week, Ajit Pawar led a split in the Nationalist Congress Party and along with eight other NCP MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government in Maharashtra.
The former Chief Minister also said he would raise the issues concerning farmers during his Vidarbha tour.On Sunday, Mr Thackeray reiterated his claim of a "decision" between him and Union minister Amit Shah before the 2019 polls. It was decided the Shiv Sena and the BJP will have its chief minister for two-and-a-half years each, he said. Today, the BJP and Shiv Sena Chief Ministers would have completed their tenure. If that had been done, the old BJP workers would have not required to pick up the carpets of other parties," he said.After the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Mr Thackeray snapped ties with long-term ally BJP over the issue of sharing the chief minister post. He then formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, comprising the Shiv Sena (then undivided), NCP and Congress.
In June last year, a revolt led by Mr Shinde led to the collapse of the MVA government and a split in the Shiv Sena. Mr Shinde later became the Chief Minister with the BJP's support.On July 2 this year, NCP's Ajit Pawar led a split in the Sharad Pawar-led party and joined the Eknath Shinde government as Deputy Chief Minister. Eight other NCP leaders were also sworn in as ministers in the state cabinet.
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar said on Saturday that notices have been issued to 40 MLAs of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and 14 of the Uddhav Thackeray faction, including his son Aaditya Thackeray, seeking their replies on disqualification petitions against them.These legislators have been given seven days to file their reply.