In an all-out attack on his former party chief-turned-rival, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday accused Uddhav Thackeray of doing “dogli rajneeti” (double-faced politics) and alleged that his predecessor was plotting an attack on his house while pretending to be making a peace offer for his return to the Shiv Sena after they split nearly two years ago.
Shinde, who now heads the “real” Shiv Sena, also said Uddhav was totally opposite to the party founder Balasaheb Thackeray and was only interested in furthering his self-interest, unlike his father who always stood by his party’s workers and never went back on his words.
In an exclusive interview with PTI at his residence here, Shinde alleged that Uddhav Thackeray abandoned Balasaheb’s ideology for the greed of the chief minister’s chair when he broke ties with the BJP to join hands with the Congress.
“We are the real Shiv Sena and taking forward Balasaheb’s vision of Hindutva and the state’s development,” he said.
Uddhav Tkacheray’s outfit cannot be called a “Hindutva” party as they joined hands with the Congress which insults Savarkar and they cannot even refer to Balasaheb as “Hindu Hriday Samrat” anymore, he said. Asked whether Uddhav Thackeray called him to come back and offered him the chief minister’s post after his rebellion in June 2022, Shinde said, “He sent an emissary to me and while that person was talking to me, he announced he was throwing me out of the party.”
“He (Uddhav) was holding a meeting where they called for burning my effigy, attacking my house, those sorts of things were happening. These meetings were happening when they had supposedly sent people to talk to me. ‘Dogli rajneeti, chehre pe alag, pet mein alag, honthon pe alag (This is double-faced politics, something on the face and something totally opposite behind it)’,” the chief minister said.
“Balasaheb was something else. He will say whatever he has to say and he will never go back on his words. Whatever he would say once, will become cast in iron. There can’t be another Balasaheb Thackeray,” he added.
The 60-year-old Shiv Sena leader, who became the chief minister soon after parting ways with Uddhav Thackeray and with the support of the BJP, said that when assembly elections happened in 2019, the people’s mandate was for the BJP-Shiv Sena government.
“But he (Uddhav) abandoned the ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray for the greed of the chief minister’s chair. We are now taking forward Balasaheb’s ideology and that forms the foundation of this Government.
