Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that there would have been no Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra if, in 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party had agreed to split the tenure of chief minister’s post, ANI reported.
He made the remarks a day after the BJP announced rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde as the chief minister of Maharashtra. It also announced Devendra Fadnavis as Shinde’s deputy.
“What happened yesterday was our proposal in 2019,” Thackeray said, according to The Hindu. “Why didn’t the BJP accept that then? And why now? Had BJP followed our agreement then, the experiment [formation of Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance] of 2019 would never have happened.”
The Shiv Sena and the BJP broke off their alliance after 2019 Assembly elections as the saffron party disagreed on splitting the tenure of chief minister’s post. Shiv Sena and BJP would have had its leaders as chief minister for 2.5 years each.
After the deal did not work out, the Shiv Sena entered into an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state. Thackeray was announced as the chief minister of the coalition.
However, the coalition government was thrown into disarray on June 20 when Shinde, along with 39 other Shiv Sena MLAs and 10 Independent legislators moved out of Maharashtra. They demanded that Thackeray should sever his alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
For more than a week, the rebel MLAs stayed first in Surat and then in Guwahati as pressure mounted on Thackeray.
On Wednesday, Thackeray resigned as the chief minister. This came after the Supreme Court rejected the Shiv Sena’s plea against the governor’s decision asking the Thackeray-led government to face a floor test to prove its majority in the Assembly.
In Thursday’s media briefing, Thackeray said that Shinde and Fadnavis could have been sworn in 2019.
“Amit Shah should have listened to me,” Thackeray said, according to The Hindu. “Had they done that, [the] BJP would have its CM [for] at least for two and half years. Now BJP wouldn’t get its CM. I don’t know what that party has achieved out of this.”
Thackeray also targeted Shinde’s decision to build a car shed in the Aarey Colony in Mumbai.
On October 11, 2020, Thackeray had announced that 800 acres of land in the Aarey Milk Colony in Mumbai would be declared a reserve forest and that the car shed for the metro project in the area would be relocated to Kanjurmarg.
“You backstabbed me but I request you to not vent out that anger on people of Mumbai by giving Aarey land to Metro,” the Shiv Sena chief said. “This will be hazardous for the environment…Don’t destroy Aarey forest.”
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