Appealing to the party organisation to get ready for the upcoming elections, Shiv Sena president and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said the only aim now was to uproot those who betrayed the party.
“Don’t bother about the ongoing political games. I am capable of handling that. You concentrate on elections. We have to win those elections at any cost. You have the responsibility to flare up the anger against these traitors. Let any election come, they (Eknath Shinde group) will have to be uprooted,” Mr. Thackeray said.
He was addressing a programme of the party’s women’s wing at the Sena Bhavan here.
Referring to the rebellion by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Mr. Thackeray said the real plan was to finish off the Sena. “The plan is to make one Shiv Sainik fight another. They don’t only want to break it, but want to finish it off and this bearded man (Eknath Shinde) is the face. Even he doesn’t know that he is throttled and not under control. Yesterday his mike was snatched. He won’t even know what will be snatched next,” Mr. Thackeray said.
Commenting on Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Mr. Thackeray said, “Those who were against us for 30 years have stood behind us but on those we decided to rely backstabbed us.”
Recalling Mr. Shinde’s speech in the Assembly on Monday where he revealed how the plan to bring down Mr. Thackeray’s government was hatched, the Sena chief taunted that his auto’s brake failure had led to the opening of many secrets. “Deputy CM was asking to stop, but an auto with failed brake was running too fast,” he said.
Replying to the Sena chief’s taunt, Mr. Shinde later tweeted, “Auto’s speed was much more than the Mercedes’ because this is a government of common man.”
Meanwhile, in what could spell more trouble for the Shiv Sena, the party’s Lok Sabha member Rahul Shewale on Tuesday wrote to Mr. Thackeray asking him to vote for the NDA’s Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu.
In his letter, Mr. Shewale referred to the history when the Sena extended support to Pratibha Patil to ensure that a woman got the top seat and also to late Pranab Mukherjee.
“In this tradition, all party MPs should be directed to vote for Draupadi Murmu to bring a tribal woman as country’s President,” he said.
