Fadnavis' allegation on Bharat Jodo Yatra shows Centre's failure on terror front: Aaditya Thackeray

A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed foreign interference and use of terror funds in the recently-concluded Vidhan Sabha polls, besides a meeting held in Kathmandu to mobilise campaign for elections through ballot papers replacing EVMs, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) said that it was a failure of the Centre.

“The Centre, the intelligence machinery does not seem to be aware of the terrorists operating in the country…it is failure of the Home Ministry,” Shiv Sena (UBT) legislature party leader Aaditya Thackeray said in what was an attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"I want to make it clear that he (Fadnavis) was not levelling allegations against the Congress, NCP (SP), or any other outfit or Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Aaditya told reporters in the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Nagpur during the ongoing winter session of the state legislature.

“He only wanted to say that the Union Home Ministry has failed in the last 10 years or two and half years. Because, if he has this information about so many terrorists operating in our country or outside the country and the Home Minister does not know it, then his (Fadnavis) allegations are directly against the Home Minister and not on the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he said.

A day earlier, hitting out at the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Fadnavis had said: “A meeting was held in Kathmandu on November 15, 2024. Some people from Bharat Jodo attended this…issues like opposing electronic voting machines and the introduction of ballot papers in Maharashtra and BJP-ruled states were discussed and resolutions were passed...I have all the records of this. There are 180 different organisations associated with the Bharat Jodo Yantras. Out of these 40 organisations held programmes and published pamphlets for Bharat Jodo during the election period. Around 48 organisations have been previously named as frontal organizations.”