Asserting that Shiv Sena is a "Hindutvavadi" party, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday rejected AIMIM's offer for an alliance calling it a "conspiracy" by the opposition BJP to defame the Sena, which heads the Maha Vikas Aghahdi (MVA) government. Thackeray, who heads Shiv Sena, virtually addressed a meeting of the party MPs and office-bearers here wherein he lashed out at BJP, the former ally of Sena, on Hindutva and other issues.
"Who has sought an alliance with the AIMIM? This is a game plan and conspiracy of the BJP. The AIMIM and the BJP have a tacit understanding. The BJP has ordered the AIMIM to defame the Shiv Sena, to raise questions on Shiv Sena's Hindutva. Accordingly, the AIMIM leaders are making the offer of alliance," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told reporters quoting Thackeray.
On Saturday, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Imtiaz Jaleel caused a stir stating that his party can ally with the Shiv Sena-led MVA to prevent the BJP from coming to power, evoking sharp reactions from Sena.
The NCP and Congress, the other two partners in the MVA, had said the AIMIM must prove that it was a "like-minded" party and not the "BJP's B-team". Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, said the Sena will launch 'Shiv Sampark Mohim', a mass outreach programme, on March 22 in 19 districts across Vidarbha and Marathwada regions in Maharashtra on Thackeray's orders to dispel the confusion the BJP was trying to create about Sena on various issues.
Uddhav ji said Shiv Sena will never join forces with the AIMIM. The Shiv Sena president also said that his party had never been associated with and will never be associated with those who bow before the grave of Aurangzeb, Raut said. The chief minister has asked Shiv Sena leaders to "destroy" those who are doubting Hindutva propagated by the party, he said. Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday termed Shiv Sena "Janab Sena" while responding to AIMIM's alliance offer to the Thackeray-led party.
Responding to the jibe, Thackeray said the Sena always believed that Hindutva was above politics. What Janab Sena? The Shiv Sena is a staunch Hindutvavadi organisation. It was and will remain Hindutvavadi. The Shiv Sena's Hindutva is not adulterated, he said. Raut recalled that the BJP had formed a government with the pro-Pakistan and separatist PDP in Jammu-Kashmir (in 2015).
He sarcastically said that it was a revolutionary alliance (between PDP-BJP) that gave a new direction to the country. Now, we will tell the people which is the real Janab Sena, Raut said quoting Thackeray.
In the meeting, Thackeray recalled that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had stated that those who take positions against Muslims are not true Hindutvavadis and cannot be called Hindus, Raut added.
Thackeray also accused Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of murdering democracy by delaying the approval to 12 names sent by the MVA to him to be appointed as MLCs from the Governor's quota. AIMIM MP Jaleel had said that AIMIM was always blamed for BJP's victory in polls and dubbed the 'B' team of that party.
"To prove this allegation wrong, I proposed to Rajesh Tope (Maharashtra health minister and NCP leader) that we are ready for an alliance," he had told a Marathi news channel. Arguing for the alliance, he also said, "There is no power left in them (Shiv Sena) to defeat the BJP single-handed. That's why they need the support of Congress and NCP. I propose that let's add another wheel to the (three-wheeled) autorickshaw and make it a comfortable car. We have expelled the corporator who had opposed the singing of 'Vande Mataram' (in the Aurangabad municipal corporation) and he has joined the NCP now".
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