MNS Chief Raj Thackeray
Credit: PTI photo
Pune: In a scathing attack on Uddhav Thackeray, his estranged cousin and Raj Thackeray accused the former Maharashtra chief minister of not taking the intelligence set-up into confidence and wondered how 40 MLAs vanished right under his nose.
“Forty MLAs went right under his nose. He never met the Intelligence ,” Raj said without naming his cousin Uddhav, who now heads the Shiv Sena (UBT) after Eknath Shinde took control of the Shiv Sena and became the chief minister.
"The Intelligence department briefs the chief minister and the prime minister first thing in the morning then how can such a thing still happen," he said.
“Look at the Assembly elections of 2019, look at the results, look at the political situation now,” said Raj in Pune campaigning for MNS candidates.
“There were two clear alliances - Shiv Sena and BJP and the Congress and NCP. The Shiv Sena-BJP had a clear majority to form the government,” he said, however, added that the then undivided Shiv Sena switched sides and joined hands with the Democratic Front to form government and claim the post of chief minister (of the Maha Vikas Aghadi).
“When Eknath Shinde was asked why he left the alliance, he said that it was difficult to work with Ajit Pawar. The government was formed with Shinde being the chief minister and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister. But later Ajit Pawar joined the government,” he said.
Raj, however, went on to add that Ajit Pawar’s induction to the (Maha Yuti) government happened just 10 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused him of Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam.
Raj, the nephew of late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, said that politics was never like this Maharashtra.
"These people changed the grammar of Maharashtra politics. Is this the teaching of our revered saints. Is this what Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj taught us?" he asked.
Raj also accused Sharad Pawar, the now head of NCP (SP) of being the master of "phoda-phodi" politics.
"There is no ideology, no commitment," Raj said and asked people to give him a chance. "I am the only one who has prepared a blue-print of Maharashtra," he said.