Fadnavis Says bjp Didn’t Break Sena...

Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief minister of maharashtra and bharatiya janata party (BJP) leader, in an exclusive interview with News18, attacked uddhav thackeray, chief of shiv sena (UBT), for “exploiting the Marathi manoos (Marathi-speaking people) of Mumbai”.

Fadnavis blamed thackeray and his leaders for forcing Marathi manoos to settle in nearby small towns such as Vasai and Virar. “Thackeray didn’t do anything for the ‘Marathi Manoos’ staying in Mumbai. What did they do regarding mill lands? Old chawls or cessed buildings? They have not taken a single decision that would benefit Marathi-speaking people and allow them to stay there. Most of the Marathi-speaking people staying in these areas have moved to small towns like Vasai, Virar. They were running the show in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Why couldn’t they do it? Yes, we were in an alliance with them, in the BMC too. We never had positions like mayor or standing committee chairman in the BMC,” he said.

Fadnavis gave the example of the BDD chawl redevelopment project initiated by his state government, providing better housing for residents at the same location. “Ninety-five per cent of residents in the BDD chawls are Marathi-speaking. people are getting 600-sqft houses compared to their earlier houses admeasuring 120 sqft. Why couldn’t uddhav do this? He should show one iconic project he can claim. We built the coastal road and mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL).”

Fadnavis reiterated that the bjp neither broke the shiv sena nor nationalist congress party (NCP). “We didn’t break any party. The shiv sena split due to the arrogance and ambition of uddhav Thackeray. thackeray betrayed the mandate and went with the maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). During that time, he had said that he wants to make a shiv sena leader the CM. people thought that Eknath Shinde, who was doing all the ground work, would be made the CM, but later thackeray became the CM. He realised that Shinde has the strength of MLAs. He wanted to make Aaditya the CM. It was the fear of uddhav thackeray that he didn’t want a repeat episode of Narayan Rane, who was a powerful leader in the shiv sena, especially when thackeray got launched. Hence, he started clipping the wings of Shinde. Aaditya, despite being a junior minister, used to hold meetings of departments led by Eknath Shinde and never invited him. All these reasons led to the split in the party,” said Fadnavis.