Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday criticized Shiv Sena leaders who joined hands with the opposition, saying they had betrayed the party's founder Bal Thackeray's ideology. Shinde was speaking at a Shiv Sankalp rally in Chikhali, a town in the state's Sangli district. He said that the leaders who had left the party had called him and his supporters "house servants" and "low-born."
"They considered themselves to be the elite of the party, but they betrayed the ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray," Shinde said. "They joined hands with the Congress, which Balasaheb had always opposed." Shinde also said that the leaders who had left the party had shown their true colors. He said that they had been willing to sacrifice two MLAs for their own personal ambitions.
"They are not interested in the welfare of the people," Shinde said. "They are only interested in power." Shinde also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he had fulfilled Balasaheb Thackeray's dream of removing Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and building a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Shinde's speech was seen as a direct attack on Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, who is the son of Balasaheb Thackeray. Uddhav Thackeray had led the Shiv Sena to form a government with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in November 2019. However, Shinde and a group of other Shiv Sena MLAs rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray in June 2022, leading to the collapse of the government. Shinde and his supporters later formed a new government with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).