The chief ministers of Maharashtra and Telangana, Uddhav Thackeray and K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), met on Sunday in an effort to form an alliance against the ruling party at the Centre, and accused the BJP of practising “low-grade politics that is not Hindutva”.
KCR said he and Thackeray were brothers, since their states shared a 1,000-km border. The Telangana CM – who came to Mumbai to get Thackeray and his alliance partner Sharad Pawar on board – assured that the talks will continue. “We will sit in Hyderabad or somewhere else in a few days and discuss more,” he said.
It was the remarks of Thackeray – a longtime BJP ally who turned against the party after the 2019 elections – that carried the sting.
“The situation prevailing in the country and the way low-grade politics is happening is not Hindutva,” said Thackeray, whose party had found common ground with the BJP in right-wing politics for decades.
“Hindutva is not about violence or revenge. If things continue like this, what is the future of the country?” said the Sena leader, whom the BJP accused of diluting his ideological commitment by sharing power with secular parties like the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.
Thackeray – whose repeated attacks against the BJP in the last years of their alliance made headlines – did not name the former ally on Sunday, but heaped criticism on it on multiple fronts.
Echoing the opposition concern about federalism, he said, “The atmosphere that should be there between states and the Centre is not seen today. This politics will not work, so we have made a fresh start.”
Rao and his counterparts in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee, and MK Stalin, have repeatedly accused the Centre of violating cooperative federalism.
The Telangana CM has also said there is a need for a debate on a new Constitution to safeguard the jurisdiction and powers of the states.