BJP can’t be trusted; don’t know how to behave with others: Raj Thackeray
Lashes out at Uddhav for not withdrawing support to govt at the Centre.
Thackeray criticised Uddhav for not asking his party’s representatives in the central govt to resign.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday slammed the BJP, saying it was a party that cannot be trusted. He also questioned his cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on why, in spite of calling off the alliance with the BJP in the state, he had still not asked his party’s representative in the central government to resign.
“The BJP cannot be trusted. They do not know how to behave with others,” the MNS chief said at the party’s first electoral rally in Kandivali in suburban Mumbai.
With alliances collapsing in Maharashtra, it was widely expected that the MNS would team up with either the BJP or Shiv Sena to form a new political alliance. However, Raj Thackeray laid to rest all speculation by aggressively targeting both the BJP and the Shiv Sena.
He said that few BJP leaders, such as Atul Bhatkhalkar and Sadashiv Lokhande, had approached him, showing willingness to join his party but he dissuaded them. He said he also informed the BJP leadership about these leaders. But the BJP did not reciprocate and poached his party workers. “You took my MLA into your party. You hijacked my candidates. I do not want to have an alliance with such people,” he said.
He also attacked his estranged cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, saying that he had failed to read the writing on the wall. He said had his father Bal Thackeray been alive he would have kicked out the BJP from the alliance. “It is strange that Uddhav did not realise what was happening. If I were in his position I would have kicked them out a month back,” he said.
He questioned Uddhav on why, despite the humiliation meted out to the Sena, his party was not withdrawing from the central government. “After such humiliation meted out to you you have still not withdrawn your minister from the central government. The alliance with the BJP in BMC has also not been broken. All this is being done because they don’t want their income sources to dry up,” Raj said.
He claimed that the splits in the Sena-BJP and Congress-NCP alliances were engineered by the NCP and BJP. “I was told by a senior journalist that Sharad Pawar had called up a senior BJP leader and said that he would call off his alliance in half an hour after the BJP broke its alliance with the Sena,” he said.
In his speech, the MNS chief struck an aggressive tone seeking greater autonomy for Maharashtra and claimed that if he came to power he would monitor all those who enter the state. “When we come to power we will have an eye on all those who enter the state. Each individual will be asked on why he has entered the state,” he said.
Share
