Amid a rebellion within his party, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in an address delivered late on the night of Friday, 24 June, said that he "will create a new Shiv Sena" if MLAs leave. He also accused the BJP of "trying to finish off" the Sena.
In a virtual address to party corporators, Thackeray said that the Shiv Sena has been "betrayed by its own people," and dared rebel leader Eknath Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to try and take away the Shiv Sena cadre and those who vote for the party.
"I had told Eknath Shinde to look into complaints regarding alliance partners. He told me that legislators were pressurising him that the Sena should join hands with the BJP. I told him to bring these MLAs to me, let's discuss this. BJP treated us badly, didn't honour promises. Many of the rebels have cases filed against them. So if they go with BJP, they will become clean, if they stayed with us, they will go to jail. Is this a sign of friendship?"Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra CM
"Shiv Sena is an ideology... BJP wants to finish it off because they don't want to share the Hindu vote bank with anyone," he said, adding that late Bal Thackeray had initiated the alliance with the BJP only to avoid a split in Hindutva votes.
"Those who want to leave are free to go openly.... I will create a new Shiv Sena, Thackeray added.
'Would've Made You Deputy CM': Thackeray to Shinde
Alluding to rumours of Shinde being offered the post of deputy chief minister if a government led by the BJP is formed in Maharashtra, Thackeray said that he would have made the rebel leader the deputy CM if he had asked.
"If a Shiv Sena worker is going to become a chief minister, you should go (with the BJP). But if you are, after all, going to become a deputy chief minister, you should have told me, I would have made you deputy chief minister," Thackeray said.
The rebel group has no option but to join the BJP, and even if it succeeded in forming the government, it will not last long because many MLAs among them are not really happy, he said. The rebels will not be able to win the next election, Thackeray claimed.
Further, the chief minister said that if Sena workers felt that he was incapable of running the party, he was ready to resign.
The chief minister's remarks come as nearly 40 Maharashtra MLAs, led by state Minister Eknath Shinde, remain holed up at a hotel in Guwahati.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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