Won't accept 'one nation, one party' plan of BJP: Uddhav Thackeray

Expressing concern over what he describes as the mindset of “one country-one party”, former Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said that he would not allow that to happen.

“What is happening is India is turning into a ‘one nation-one party’ country. But we will not allow that to happen,” Thackeray said addressing a meeting of party of workers at Digras in Yavatmal district during his two-day whirlwind tour of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

“In Maharashtra, what we see is BJP pursuing ‘sabka malik ek,” he said referring to Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, who is now the chief minister and NCP’s Ajit Pawar, who is now the deputy chief minister.

Thackeray also criticised BJP’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who engineered these defections.

“This is a government of ‘gaddars’ and ‘lachaars’,” he said, adding: “When our (Maha Vikas Aghadi) was running the state, these (BJP) people used to call it 'teen-chaki wahan' (three-wheeler vehicle). Now suddenly the present government (of three parties) becomes ‘trishool’ (trident),” Thackeray said.

“I do not think the BJP deserves anything to be said about it. It has no right to preach to us. I am waiting to see how the BJP handles its new riff-raffs,” he told reporters during the visit.

Thackeray also came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Thackeray reiterated that the BJP had assured him the rotational chief minister post of two-and-a-half years. “What (then BJP president and now Union Home Minister) Amit Shah promised should have been kept,” Thackeray said.

“The politics of breaking parties is not new. Earlier they used to break parties. Now they run away with parties,” Thackeray said commencing his tour of Yavatmal, Wasim, Amravati, Akola, and Nagpur districts.

Thackeray's tour of the Poharadevi temple in Washim district is very significant - as it is the biggest pilgrimage centre of the Banjara community - and it houses the temple of Jagadambadevi and shrine of Sant Sevalal Maharaj.

It may be mentioned, Sanjay Rathod, the then forest minister in the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, had to put in his papers on 28 February, 2021, as he came under severe criticism and pressure because of his name cropping up in the wake of the death of social media star Pooja Chavan. Rathod, a member of the Banjara community who wields influence in the Yavatmal-Washim area, later switched over with Eknath Shinde and is a minister in the government.

The vast Vidarbha region which has 11 districts spread across two revenue divisions of Nagpur and Amravati is very significant in Maharashtra politics.

In the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the largest chunk of 62-plus members come from the Vidarbha region.

In 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, the BJP won 29 seats from the region, while Shiv Sena won 4 seats - when they contested the polls as saffron alliance.

The central Indian city of Nagpur houses the RSS headquarters and is also the home town of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule and union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari. State forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar too is from the Vidarbha region and hails from Chandrapur.

Once Vidarbha was a stronghold of the Congress and used to get maximum MLA but over the years BJP has nurtured it into a political stronghold.