Mumbai: A deserter cannot be the Shiv Sena chief minister, said former chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday. His statement referred to Eknath Shinde who has been sworn in as chief minister of Maharashtra.
His statements assume significance amid claims by the Shinde Group of 40-MLAs that they are ‘the real Shiv Sena’ with the possibility of a tussle to control the 56-year-old party and its assets.
Thackeray also slammed the remark of many leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that Shiv Sainik (Shinde) had become the chief minister of the state. He said that the attempt was to misguide the Shiv Sena workers. A person who has side-lined the Sena cannot be called a ‘Shiv Sainik’ CM, he said. Shinde was sworn in as chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis as deputy chief minister on Thursday. Thackeray said that he had been saying for the past two and a half years that a Shiv Sainik should be the chief minister but, at that time, the BJP simply gave a wide berth to his demand. The Shiv Sena took a decision on the matter at Matoshri before the last Lok Sabha polls and the last Assembly elections in 2019.
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“If Amit Shah (BJP’s Union Home Minister) had kept his word, and shared the post of CM, whatever happened in the past few days could have happened in a dignified manner,” said Thackeray, referring to the rebellion in the party ranks.
He reiterated that Shah reneged on his promise of sharing the chief minister’s post for 30 months each and, now that two and a half years have passed, an amicable changeover could have happened. “If they had honoured the commitment, then where was the need for me to become CM and even Maha Vikas Aghadi would not have come into existence…” Thackeray pointed out, in a brief media interaction at the Shiv Sena Bhavan – the party headquarters in Dadar.
