Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s emotional speech, in which he challenged the Central agencies to put him in jail instead of his party workers, ended any speculation of his party returning to an electoral understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and also reached out to Sena workers to boost their confidence.
While the BJP’s Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and former CM Devendra Fadnavis rejected Mr. Thackeray’s speech, terming it as “an emotional outburst”, Sena sources said that the intention was to send a message to party workers, which was largely achieved. “This was not a speech to be made in the legislative House. It was his speech from Shivaji Park (a historic venue for rallies in central Mumbai). It didn’t answer any of our [the BJP’s] allegations nor the issues that we had raised,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
“By approaching the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) office voluntarily, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in 2019 made the fight against the BJP personal, which turned him into an undisputed leader of anti-BJP forces in Maharashtra. The same is being tried by Uddhav Thackeray this time. But this would also mean that the BJP will increase its attacks on the Sena and it will be interesting to see how party tackles it,” senior journalist and political commentator Amey Tirodkar said.
