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‘Moved to the back benches’: Uddhav Thackeray ‘insulted’ by Rahul Gandhi and Congress in Delhi, say BJP and Shinde Sena

The BJP said Rahul Gandhi and the Congress have constantly insulted Uddhav Thackeray and his party, as well as Balasaheb Thackeray.

INDIA bloc dinner in New Delhi | Uddhav seated in last row: Insulted by Cong, says Shinde“If they insulted him and he doesn’t feel anything about it, what am I supposed to say?” Shinde said. (PTI Photo)

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray was insulted as he was made to sit on the last bench during the INDIA bloc meeting convened by Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, in New Delhi, Maharashtra unit of the BJP and Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde alleged Friday.

Uddhav Thackeray was among the 50 representatives of 25 parties — including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP (SP)’s Sharad Pawar, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, NC president Farooq Abdullah, and PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, among others — who attended the INDIA bloc meeting held Thursday.

The BJP said Rahul Gandhi and the Congress have constantly insulted Uddhav Thackeray and his party, as well as Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray.

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”When Uddhav Thackeray and his Sena were in alliance with the BJP, we always gave them the pride of place. Be at meetings or rallies, Uddhavji was also seated on the front bench. We gave him full respect. However, at yesterday’s INDIA bloc meeting, Rahul Gandhi forced Uddhavji to sit on the back bench, thereby insulting him…This is how the INDIA bloc treats the Thackerays,” said BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhaye.

“Congress and Rahul Gandhi have never addressed Balasaheb Thackeray as Hindu Hridaysamrat. He has never visited Matoshree, especially after the Sena joined hands with Maha Vikas Aghadi. The Congress leaders have never visited the memorial of Balasaheb Thackeray and never paid floral tributes. In contrast, several top BJP leaders have visited Matoshree and shown respect. In 20019, Amit Shah had also visited the Thackeray residence,” he added.

Upadhaye said that every year, Uddhav Thackeray meets Rahul and Sonia Gandhi. “He has given up Hindutva, he has dumped ideology, he has lost his respect. And now Uddhav Thackeray has been moved to the back benches,” he said.

Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske said, “Not just Uddhav Thackeray, even his son Aaditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut were made to sit on the back bench. The Congress has shown them their worth.”

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Reacting to the criticism, Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “The meeting was held in an open space and a giant screen was put up. Uddhavji said he finds it difficult to see the screen clearly by sitting in the front row, and therefore he sat behind. Aditya and I then joined him.’

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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