Mumbai: Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray stayed non-committal on whether he wants to put his hat in the ring if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) were to form the government. He, however, emphasised that people had praised his work as chief minister of Maharashtra from November 2019 to June 2022.
The MVA comprises the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharadchandra Pawar.
The Shiv Sena UBT chief is on a three-day visit to New Delhi, his first to the Capital after the Lok Sabha elections during which he is expected to meet leaders of the INDIA bloc of which the Shiv Sena (UBT) is a constituent. “When I was the CM last time, my colleagues said I did good work, so ask them (whether I should be CM again), however, as far as I am concerned, MVA was not formed for any one person. It was formed to defeat BJP and anti-Maharashtra forces,” Thackeray told the media Wednesday.
He added, “We can sit down (to discuss) on who will be the chief minister later. We have many faces within MVA for that but CM faces that the (ruling) Mahayuti has are not deserving.”
Thackeray’s visit to Delhi also invited criticism from the ruling alliance in Maharashtra.
“To petition himself to be the chief minister again, he has come to Delhi. And for that he has to wait to get an appointment with Sonia Gandhi,” Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske told media persons.
Thackeray is expected to meet Congress leader Sonia Gandhi Thursday.
MVA was formed after the 2019 assembly elections when the BJP-Shiv Sena combine fell apart. At the time, the undivided Shiv Sena was the dominant party with the highest number of seats (56), while the then undivided NCP had 54 and the Congress 44 MLAs in the state legislature.
Though Sena’s Eknath Shinde engineered a vertical split in the party in 2022, the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections saw the Congress emerging as the party with the most number of MPs from Maharashtra.
A senior Congress leader told ThePrint on condition of anonymity that the alliance’s chief ministerial face will be decided on whoever has the highest number of seats.
“Nobody can claim the CM’s post. After the Lok Sabha elections where we emerged the single largest party in the state, we will try to get the maximum number of seats in the alliance. Post that, CM will be decided on whichever party that has the highest number of seats. Even our leader Rahul Gandhi has asked us to bargain hard this time and not go beyond a threshold.”
At the same time, things are also not too rosy on the other side. While leaders of all three constituents of the Mahayuti (BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP) have agreed publicly to contest the assembly elections under Shinde’s leadership, there is still no consensus on who will be the face of the alliance if the Mahayuti were to hold on to power in the state.
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Thackeray on Bangladesh
Thackeray, in his address to the media Wednesday, also spoke about the crisis in Bangladesh, saying it sent a strong message to the world that in a democracy, people are supreme and rulers must not test their patience.
“People have a threshold of tolerance to their suffering. Once that is crossed, then they will deliver their verdict. It happened in Bangladesh. Such things can happen anywhere, anytime. Hence, the people in power must take serious note of this and not consider themselves as above God.”
The former chief minister also dared Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to ‘save the Hindus’ who were the targets of alleged communal atrocities in Bangladesh.
“The Bangladesh situation is akin to the problems in Kashmir and Manipur. If Modi and Shah cannot go to Manipur, show courage and at least go to Bangladesh now to ensure the well-being of our Hindus there and stop the violence in that country,” he said.
Adding, “If Prime Minister Modi could stop the war in Ukraine, he should also take similar steps in Bangladesh and save the Hindus there.”
On the issue of a tussle between Marathas and OBCs over the Maratha quota, Thackeray said that this was a sensitive issue that should be handled by Parliament in due time.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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