‘Fake Shiv Sena chief’ Uddhav can’t claim Bal Thackeray’s legacy: Amit Shah

Ratnagiri/Sangli (Maharashtra), May 3 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said "fake Shiv Sena chief" Uddhav Thackeray can not claim his father Bal Thackeray's legacy which lies with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former Sena leaders Raj Thackeray and Narayan Rane.

Uniform civil code will be implemented across the country in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term, he averred while claiming that Uddhav Thackeray had embraced Congress' "vote bank." Shah was speaking at a campaign rally at Ratnagiri in coastal Maharashtra for Union minister Rane who is the BJP candidate from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency.

Making Narendra Modi prime minister once again would mean "making the country secure and prosperous," he said, adding that the opposition's INDI Alliance has become an "Aurangzeb Fan Club", and can not run the country.

Those who go to Thailand for vacation when the mercury rises in India cannot handle the country, Shah said, in apparent dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Can the "nakli" (fake) Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray mention freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar in his speeches, Shah asked.

"What are you as Shiv Sena chief if you are ashamed of taking Savarkar's name. You are running a `nakli' Shiv Sena. The real Shiv Sena is with Eknath Shinde," the BJP leader said.

Shinde rebelled against Thackeray's leadership in June 2022 and formed a government in the state by joining hands with the BJP. The Maharashtra assembly Speaker subsequently recognised Shinde's faction as the real Shiv Sena.

"You (Uddhav) do not get Balasaheb's (Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray) legacy this way. You may be his son, but his legacy is with Narayan Rane, Eknath Shinde and Raj Thackeray. You have abandoned his legacy," Shah added.

While Rane left the Sena in 2005 after falling out with Uddhav and was with Congress for some years before joining the BJP, Raj Thackeray exited Shiv Sena in 2006 to start his own party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Raj has extended support to the BJP in the ongoing elections.

Shah also claimed that to get the chief minister's post in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray fell on the feet of the NCP and Congress who had opposed the abrogation of Article 370.

"Those who surrender before Rahul Gandhi and Sharad Pawar for power cannot protect Maharashtra's pride," the BJP leader added. Uddhav, notably, severed the Sena's long-standing alliance with the BJP in 2019.

Congress and Sharad Pawar kept the Ram Temple issue hanging, the Union minister alleged, adding that on the other hand, PM Modi "won the case" in the Supreme Court and conducted `bhoomi poojan' and consecration of the Ram Temple within five years.

Congress' vote bank had become Uddhav Thackeray's vote bank now, Shah said.

Uddhav must state whether he supports triple talaq, Muslim Personal Law and Article 370, he said, while asserting that Uniform Civil Code will be implemented across the country after Narendra Modi wins a third term.

Shah again targeted Uddhav Thackeray at a rally for BJP candidate Sanjay Kaka Patil at Sangli in western Maharashtra in the evening.

The "nakli Sena chief" should state whether the Popular Front of India (PFI) should be banned, Citizenship (Amendment) Act be implemented and whether the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and ban on triple talaq were good developments, he said.

"But he will not comment because of his new vote bank which earlier supported Congress and NCP. This vote bank will not speak against Pakistan or hoist the tricolour in Kashmir," the Union minister said.

He appealed the people of Sangli to press the EVM button in such a way that "current is felt in Italy", an apparent jibe at Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's Italian origins.

The 2024 elections was a fight between "those who say vote for Jihad and those who say vote for vikas," Shah said, adding it was also a fight between Rahul Gandhi's "Chinese guarantee" (apparently meaning unreliable promises) and "Modi's Indian guarantee." Attacking the INDIA bloc, Shah asked, "Who is their PM face? Can Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Uddhav Thackeray, (Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K) Stalin become PM? One joker-like leader said everyone will get the post." These "corrupt leaders" cannot compete with Modi who is not tainted by even the slightest corruption allegation, he said.

Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi did not attend the Ram temple consecration, Shah said, asking the gathering whether they will support such leaders.

Before 2014, Pakistan-based terrorists had a free run in India, but when terror attacks in Uri, Pulwama happened, Pakistan had forgotten that Modi was at the helm and not Manmohan Singh, he said.

"Modi conducted surgical strikes inside Pakistan and destroyed terrorist camps," the Union minister added.

Sharad Pawar should explain why the number of sugar mills in Maharashtra fell from 202 to about 100, and why only three district co-operative banks were functioning on their own while the rest have administrators appointed over them (due to irregularities), said Shah, who is also the Union minister for cooperation. PTI