INDIA. Mumbai: Former Chief Minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday appealed to voters to press the voting machine’s button to bring down the BJP-led government at the center in the ensuing polls without thinking about the alternative.
Addressing a largely attended second ‘Vajramooth rally’ of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) at Darshan Colony Ground in Nagpur, Thackeray said, “The revolutionaries fought against the British and went to the gallows to achieve Independence. Now you have to only press the button and decide that those who committed injustice won’t be given the chair. Anybody can come (after the elections), but not this (government)”.
The rally was attended by top MVA leaders from all three parties, with NCP MLA and Leader of the Opposition Ajit Pawar sharing the stage. Pawar had earlier dismissed any reports about him joining hands with the BJP and said that it was only the media that was publishing such reports.
Though Pawar did not speak at the rally, former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, NCP’s state president Jayant Patil, Congress state president Nana Patole, Senior Congress leader, and Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan spoke at the rally. Chavan slammed the central government for siding with industrialist Gautam Adani on the Hindenburg report.
Thackeray lambasted the BJP over its “fake” Hindutva, saying that the party has been adopting double standards as suited to its requirements. He said that while he was being criticized for renouncing “Hindutva”, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat was visiting mosques. “On one hand, you recite Hanuman Chalisa and visit the mosques on the another. Is this not a double standard?” he asked.
“Instead of sprinkling ‘Gomutra’ (cow urine) to purify any place, the BJP leaders should drink it to purify themselves and gain some wisdom. Maharashtra and the country are in bad shape due to the ‘power-hungry’ BJP and it is time, the country is freed from the ‘power-intoxicated’ BJP,” Thackeray said.
Deshmukh said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) could not get any proof of corruption against him despite making him languish in jail for a long time. The person who levelled allegations against him was absconding for six months and never appeared before the court. “Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh was pressurized to lodge a false complaint against me. I was implicated in a Rs 1.71 crore bribery case, but ED could not get any evidence”.
“Today cotton farmers were suffering due to falling rates. They could not export cotton. The orange growers who suffered heavy losses due to unseasonal rains were yet to get compensation despite a promise by Deputy Chief Minister CM Devendra Fadnavis,” Deshmukh said.
NCP leader Jayant Patil said that the majority of the industrial projects went out of Maharashtra. Former Maharashtra Governor B. S. Koshyari insulted many Maharashtra personalities, including Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Yet the BJP-backed Maharashtra government kept quiet. Nobody knows what the Eknath Shinde-led government has been doing in the last 10 months.
Also Read: Uddhav Thackeray Slams Rahul Gandhi over His Savarkar Remark
