Amid hectic political developments, Eknath Shinde claimed that Uddhav Thackeray was keen and ensured that he was the Maharashtra chief minister after the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls - a charge that the latter vehemently denied saying that he wanted to fulfil the dream of late Balasaheb Thackeray to see a Shiv Sainik in the top post.
When the Maha Vikas Aghadi came into being - it was NCP supremo Sharad Pawar who asked Thackeray to become the chief minister for stability of the coalition, however, now Shinde has contested the claim.
“…Actually he (Thackeray) wanted to become the chief minister…he actually sent people to Pawar with a message…he wanted Pawar to propose his name,” Shinde, who is now the chief leader of Shiv Sena, said in an interview to a Marathi news channel.
However, Thackeray, who was in Vidarbha, told reporters that the claim was wrong. “I had given a promise to Balasaheb to make a Shiv Sainik the chief minister… and that’s what I told (then BJP president and now union home minister) Amit Shah,” he said, referring to the February 2019 meeting in which the power-sharing deal between the Shiv Sena and BJP for the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls was sealed including sharing of the chief minister’s post for two-and-a-half years.
However, over the last three years, the BJP has vehemently denied any such promise made by Shah to Thackeray.
"Balasaheb has taught me... before you give a word to someone, think a hundred times... think a lakh times, but once you have given it ensured that it is fulfilled and you don't go back... I wanted to fulfil the promise made to Balasaheb," added Thackeray.