MumbaiAttacking the Eknath Shinde camp and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a Dussehra rally in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday promised that Maharashtra would see a Shiv Sena chief minister again along with the party’s supporters.
Calling the Shinde faction as creeper, Uddhav said that whatever happened was for good and he is happy that “the creepers have fallen from the trees, the real roots of the trees are still with them”.
“With your support, I promise you one thing. The promise I gave to Balasaheb, I will now give to all of you. I will ensure that you will see the Shiv Sena CM once again,” said the former Maharashtra chief minister. CM said.
Emphasizing that Hindutva does not mean that one should dislike other religions, the Shiv Sena leader drew a comparison between his Hindutva ideology and the Hindutva of the BJP-RSS.
In an effort to reach out to Muslims, he clarified that his Hindutva means love for the country, and that if a Muslim does the same, he accepts that person.
To reiterate his point, he narrated how RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had recently visited a mosque to interact with Muslims. “I want to ask those who accuse me of leaving Hindutva. I respect Mohan Bhagwat but he went to a mosque and reached out to the Muslims. Has he left Hindutva? But just because we went with Congress and formed the government, you accuse us of giving up Hindutva. What is connection? What are you trying to deduce? For me any person of any religion who loves his country, I accept that,” he asked.
Further, Uddhav blamed the Center for the murder of Ankita Bhandari, a young girl in Uttarakhand who worked at a resort owned by a BJP leader. He also highlighted how the Gujarat government released the convicts of Bilkis Bano and questioned the BJP’s respect for women.
The Dussehra rally at the Shiv Sena’s traditional venue was crucial for Uddhav, who is struggling to keep the party afloat and to show that although MPs have switched sides – the grassroots cadre is with them.
The rally – a show of strength – was also essential to create perception ahead of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. In the BMC where Shiv Sena was in power for 25 years, this time Uddhav faced the toughest battle to win back the civic body after the vertical split.