NEW DELHI, July 1: Eknath Shinde as the Maharashtra chief minister and a BJP leader, possibly Devendra Fadnavis himself, as his deputy for the first half of the five year term was Shiv Sena’s proposal to the BJP for the formation of the new government after the 2019 elections.
But it did not materialise as the BJP refused to share power with the Sena then and wanted to keep all the five years to itself and the alliance fell off, the Shinde’s predecessor and the Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray claimed on Friday.
After swearing-on of Shinde as the chief minister and Fadnavis as his deputy on Thursday night, Thackeray said this was the exact proposal over which his party and the then BJP president Amit Shah had agreed upon and had it been respected then, the experiment of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) would never have happened.
Countering BJP’s claim that it elevated a Sena worker at the top post, Thackeray claimed that Shinde was not Sena’s Chief Minister. “What has happened yesterday was our exact proposal in 2019 to Amit Shah and the BJP. Why didn’t the BJP accept the proposal then? And why have they done this now? Had the BJP respected our agreement, the experiment of Maha Vikas Aghadi would never have happened,” said Thackeray, addressing a press conference at party headquarter Sena bhavan. He did not take any questions.
“You are saying that you made a Sena workers as Chief Minister. But let me tell you this CM is not of Sena. You cannot have Sena’s CM by sidelining the party,” he said. He was referring to BJP’s claim from Thursday where the party has been saying that it ensured that the Sena worker like Eknath Shinde who worked on the Hindutva principles of Sena founder late Bal Thackeray was made the CM.
“The duo that was sworn in yesterday, would have been in power in 2019 itself. That was the agreement between me and Amit Shah. Had they followed, BJP would have had its CM for at least two and half years. Now, BJP will not have its CM for total of five years. I don’t know what that party has achieved by doing this?” he asked.
Objecting to the new government’s decision to bring the metro car shed project back to Aarey Colony, Thackeray said the anger on him shouldn’t be directed at the people of Mumbai. “You backstabbed me, but I request you to not vent out that anger on the people of Mumbai by giving Aarey land to Metro. This is hazardous from the environment and pose threat of encroachment on the rest of forest land,” he said.
Thackeray said since the state and central governments are now both run by the BJP, the Kanjurmarg land allotted for the project by previous government can now be utilised without court proceedings.
Commenting on party MLAs deserting him to join rebels, Thackeray said the voting was secret and people vote to an MLA who belongs to a particular party. “Balasaheb (Sena founder) used to say that the people should have the choice to call their representative back and looking at the developments in last few days, it is time to bring this act giving right to people to call them back,” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)