Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT), stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was causing splits in other parties and claimed it was doing so as it was not confident of winning elections on its own.
Thackeray, who was on a tour of Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, also accused the BJP-led Centre of raising issues like the Uniform Civil Code ahead of polls just to divert the attention of people for electoral gains.
After the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Thackeray broke ties with the BJP to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with the help of the NCP and Congress. MVA government collapsed in June last year after Shinde broke ranks with Thackeray. Shinde later formed government in alliance with the BJP.
Addressing Shiv Sena (UBT) workers in Amravati on the second day of his Vidarbha tour, Thackeray asked the BJP why it needed to split other parties when it claimed to have the number one prime minister in world. You are stealing the Shiv Sena, you have also stolen the NCP and you will steal some other tomorrow. You sell off what belongs to the country and rob what belongs to others, he alleged.
Why this time has come before the BJP the biggest party in the world? It's meaning is very simple you have satta ki masti (pride of power) and no atmavishwas (self-confidence), he said. Thackeray claimed the Shiv Sena had carried the BJP, when it was nothing in Maharashtra, on its shoulders and helped it expand base in the state.
You are trying to finish us off in politics, this is your Hindutva. We were with you for 25 to 30 years and now you are planning to finish off the Shiv Sena which was with you when you were zero, he said hitting out at its former saffron ally.
Balasaheb Thackeray saved you, otherwise (former prime minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee had then thrown you in the dustbin. If Balasaheb Thackeray had not stood behind the present prime minister, then would he have been the PM now? This you should ask yourself rather than asking others, he said.