'Insult to Bal Thackeray': BJP hits back at Uddhav's 'Sena-BJP alliance' remark

Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray launched a blistering attack on the BJP on Sunday, stating that the Sena had “wasted 25 years in political alliance” with the party. He also claimed that while the Shiv Sena has decided to abandon the BJP, it will never abandon Hindutva, as the “BJP is not synonymous with Hindutva”.

Uddhav Thackeray's scorching remark on the decades-old alliance did not go down well with the BJP, which accused the CM of 'questioning' the decision of Shiv Sena founder and his father, late Balasaheb Thackeray.

Sena, under Bal Thackeray, had begun a coalition with the BJP in 1989 for the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The alliance won the 1995 Maharashtra polls and was in power from 1995 to 1999 under Chief Minister Manohar Joshi. However, the alliance ruptured after the 2019 Assembly election owing to Sena's demand for a rotational CM post.

Irked by Uddhav Thackeray's comment, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "Questioning the (alliance) decision of Balasaheb Thackeray on his birth anniversary is not a true tribute but an insult to him." Tweeting a photo of  CM Uddhav with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Patra blamed the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition for the Sena's leader's ideology.

Reacting to Thackeray's comment, BJP's Tejinder Singh Bagga also said, "This is the first time I have seen anyone point fingers at Balasahib Thackeray's decision."

'Shiv Sena wasted 25 years in alliance with BJP': Uddhav Thackeray

Earlier on Sunday, while his party cadre on the occasion of Balasaheb Thackeray's birth anniversary, Uddhav said, “I still believe that 25 years of the party were wasted in an alliance [with the BJP].” “We are criticized over leaving Hindutva. We have left BJP, not Hindutva. BJP is not synonymous with Hindutva.”

Asserting that Shiv Sena's Hindutva “does not change based on convenience”, he said the BJP's version of Hindutva politics is opportunistic. “I believe that the BJP's opportunistic Hindutva is for power. Those who were criticizing the Emergency period are right now behind an invisible emergency in the country. And if we want to end this, the Shiv Sena is needed,” added the CM. 

The Shiv Sena had a bitter fallout with BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra polls and tied up with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state.