Taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday asked his party activists to check every village in the State for whether the Central schemes advertised by the government have actually reached the people.
“They are doing a sampark abhiyan, we should do a fact-finding abhiyan. This government has spent more than ₹4,000 crore on advertising. People tend to believe claims looking at photos of the Prime Minister and Chief Minister. We should take our membership drive to every village in the State to find out whether the advertised schemes have actually reached the people,” said Mr. Thackeray, addressing the party’s foundation day rally in Mumbai.
Hinting that general elections may be round the corner, Mr. Thackeray cited the example of shifting the monsoon session of the State legislature to Nagpur from Mumbai. “This year, the government is holding the monsoon session in Nagpur. I am not opposing it, as Nagpur is the second capital of Maharashtra. But does that mean general elections will be held in November-December?” he said.
Mr. Thackeray said BJP president Amit Shah visit to him is an indication that the Sena’s importance has grown. “The saffron flag must fly high for the sake of the people. Hindu refugees from Bangladesh are being accepted in Assam. What if there are Muslims in disguise? The Sena will oppose the Assam Bill in the Lok Sabha,” he said.
Congratulating the BJP over the decision to pull out of the Jammu & Kashmir government, Mr. Thackeray asked, “To conclude that the Jammu & Kashmir government is useless, why does it take three years and the martyrdom of 600 soldiers?” He asked, “If terrorism has no religion why was a ceasefire announced during Ramzan? Have you ever heard Pakistan announcing a ceasefire during Ganesh Chaturthi or Diwali?”
Hitting out at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar over the recent ‘turban politics’, the Sena chief accused Mr. Pawar of dividing Marathi votes. “Nobody needs you even today. You should not play politics using the turban, but rather, use your head. You are rejecting Lokmanya Tilak’s turban by promoting Mahatma Phule’s turban. But this is to divide the Marathi community,” he said.
Mr. Thackeray said the recently announced hyperloop between Mumbai and Pune and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project were “impotent” dreams shown to people to gain votes. “We are for development but not to break away Mumbai from Maharashtra and make it a suburb of Gujarat. Any attempts to break away Mumbai will have severe consequences.”
Making fun of recent news reports which claimed the sighting of an unidentified flying object over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence, Mr. Thackeray wondered if the PM would now travel to other planets as well.
Earlier, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray said the party has passed a resolution to contest elections on its own. “Let’s all begin work from today. We have to win the elections,” he said.
