The Shiv Sena workers have pulled down the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government as they were fed up with Thackeray’s hypocrisy and not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), union home minister Amit Shah said on Saturday. He also accused Thackeray of betraying the BJP for the chief minister’s post by rushing to ally with Congress. Shah was addressing the BJP rally in Nanded.
A stronghold of Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan. Shah was accompanied by deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule and BJP MP from Nanded Pratap Chikhlikar.“Devendra Fadnavis and I had gone for negotiations to Thackeray. He had accepted that Fadnavis would be chief minister if NDA got a majority (in the 2019 assembly elections). When results came out, he broke his promise and went with Congress-NCP for power,” Shah said. “We are accused of pulling down your government. We didn’t. It was Shiv Sena workers who were fed up with your hypocrisy. They didn’t want to be with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), hence they left.”
Making a pitch for re-electing prime minister Narendra Modi in the general elections next year, Shah came down heavily on Thackeray and dared him to make his stand clear on issues such as triple talaq, construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya and reservation to Muslims. He said BJP was opposed to any religion-based reservation.“You (Udhhav) cannot ride in two boats at the same time. Uddhav should tell people where he stands,” he added.Thackeray’s allies Congress and NCP are in favour of reservation to Muslims, however, they have kept mum on most of the issues except Ram temple which it supports.Shah added that the real Shiv Sena is led by chief minister Eknath Shinde as it has got back its bow and arrow as the symbol.