Shiv Sena UBT crisis: Uddhav offers to resign as chief; will his party and Congress merge? Ex Maharashtra CM answers | Today’s news
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said he would resign from his post if any allegations against him were proved, while saying he would never allow the Shiv Sena to be “handed over to any thief”. Rejecting allegations leveled at six rebel MPs who said they feared the party might ally with the Congress, he maintained that a united Shiv Sena has always stood for Hindutva and the sons of the soil ideology.
In his first remarks on the impending split of the party for the second time in four years, he mentioned on Friday that the Shiv Sena was never formed with the intention of merging with another party.
Addressing party workers on the 60th foundation day of Shiv Sena, Thackeray strongly criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. He also accused the BJP of undermining public confidence in democracy with its political approach.
Amid the continuing allegations and political developments, Thackeray reaffirmed that the Shiv Sena would remain independent and not merge with the Congress.
“Today is the 60th foundation day of Shiv Sena. People might have thought that I will see a broken Shiv Sainik, but none of them are like that. These four MPs and all MLAs have come today. Everyone’s suffering is visible today. There is no point in judging by elections. They say that Shiv Sena will merge closely with Congress. I have been with Shiv Sena from the beginning and I have seen it according to Lo Now, according to Thacker, the time has come. ANI.
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“They win elections by doing whatever they want. You think Shiv Sena will merge with Congress, it won’t happen. If the allegations leveled against me are true, then I will leave my post, but I will not hand over Shiv Sena to any thief; you all should answer those who are doing this to me,” he added.
“He was created to fight for the rights of the Marathi people and to protect Hindutva,” he said while addressing a gathering of Shiv Sena workers (UBT) on the 60th foundation day of the united Shiv Sena, founded by his father, the late Bal Thackeray.
“Shiv Sena was not born to merge with anyone”
He attacked the rebel MPs for suggesting that the Shiv Sena (UBT) might ally with the Congress.
“If we didn’t tie up with BJP, despite being an ally for 30 years, how can we tie up with Congress. I fear BJP from Maharashtra might tie up with Shinde Sena,” he remarked.
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He said that though the Shiv Sena had serious political differences with the Congress, it had never tried to weaken or destroy the party as the BJP is said to be doing.
Six of the nine Shiv Sena (UBT) Lok Sabha MPs defied the party whip and skipped an important parliamentary party meeting held in New Delhi on Thursday. The MPs who did not attend the meeting include Nagesh Aashtikar, Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Deshmukh, Sanjay Dina Patil, Omprakash Rajenimbalkar and Bhausaheb Wakchaure, according to PTI.
The former chief minister also apologized to the electorate for electing these MPs, saying that they now seem likely to switch parties.
“The Shiv Sena was not born to merge with anyone. It was created to fight for the rights of the Marathi people and to protect Hindutva,” Thackeray said, adding that he accepted the chief minister’s post in 2019 out of a sense of responsibility after what the BJP described as a “betrayal” of a united Shiv Sena.
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He has also targeted his political rivals, who often criticize his leadership style and say he is disconnected from party workers and the public.
“Unless I moved to the party workers and traveled across the state, how did they all win the elections. During the (2024) Lok Sabha elections, I had seven to ten meetings in each constituency. They (rebels) became MPs because of the faith of Shiv Sainiks and voters,” he added.
Thackeray further claimed that the country was moving towards a “one party, no elections” system, which he said was against democratic principles.
He warned that the BJP’s “politics of engineering defectors” posed a serious threat to democracy and said public confidence in the electoral system was steadily declining.
