‘Had Amit Shah kept his word, there would…’: Uddhav Thackeray on new Maharashtra govt

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday lashed out at the BJP for giving the Chief Ministerial slot to Eknath Shinde, a rebel Shiv Sena leader, and said that had the former ally kept its promise made earlier, there would have been no “Maha Vikas Aghadi” in the state. Referring to Eknath Shinde’s swearing-in as CM and Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy, Uddhav said that he had told Amit Shah earlier as well that there should be a Shiv Sena CM for 2.5 years (during the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance). Had they done this earlier, there would’ve been no Maha Vikas Aghadi.”

He also lashed out at rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, who led the revolt against him for over a week which culminated in the resignation of Thackeray from the office.

The Shiv Sena chief said that the new CM is not from his party which the BJP has aimed at making. He said that he had told Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2019 about the distribution of the Chief Ministerial post for 2.5 years each.

It may be noted that the Shiv Sena and BJP had parted ways after the 2019 Assembly elections in the state after the former demanded 2.5 years of Chief Ministership each for both the parties during the term of five years, which the latter had not agreed to. Shiv Sena had then stitched an alliance with rival NCP and Congress to form the government.

Uddhav went on to say that “the manner in which Govt has been formed & a so-called Shiv Sena worker has been made CM, I had said the same to Amit Shah. This could’ve been done respectfully. The Shiv Sena was officially with you (at that time). This CM (Eknath Shinde) is not a Shiv Sena CM.”

Slamming the new government for its decision to build the metro car shed in Mumbai’s Aarey colony, Thackeray asked not to “project anger” for him on Mumbaikars. “Don’t project anger for me on Mumbaikars. Don’t change the proposal for the metro shed. Don’t toy with the environment of Mumbai,” he said.

In September 2019, then Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that the government is bound to cut trees in Mumbai’s Aarey forest area as “development is important”.

Uddhav Thackeray resigned on Wednesday after most of his Shiv Sena MLAs joined rebel Eknath Shinde, bringing down the coalition government.

Eknath Shinde was sworn in as CM on Thursday, with former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. One of the first decisions he took was to reverse the Thackeray government’s decision to shift a controversial metro car shed project from a green zone in Mumbai.