Where was Sena during Ayodhya campaign?: Fadnavis’ rebuttal to Thackeray

Delivering a hard-hitting rebuttal to Uddhav Thakeray over his remarks that the BJP used ‘Hindutva’ to serve its own agenda and that the Shiv Sena wasted 25 years in alliance with the saffron party, former Maharashtra chief minister on Monday said that the Sena wasn’t even born when the BJP was “taking bullets and lathis” for the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign.

“Shiv Sena has selective memory. The Shiv Sena was not even born when BJP had its members in the Mumbai civic body. In the 1984 election, their party candidate contested on a BJP ticket,” Fadnavis said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Thackeray at an event in Mumbai on Sunday had accused the BJP of using the concept of Hindutva for its political goals. He said the Sena had aligned with the saffron party “as it wanted power for Hindutva”, but never used Hindutva to be in power.

“The Sena has left the BJP and not Hindutva. I believe that BJP’s opportunistic Hindutva is only for power,” Thackeray said.

Commenting on the remarks against his party, Fadnavis said Thackeray was just venting out his frustration over the Sena standing fourth at the recent Nagar Panchayat polls.

“Where were you in the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign? We took bullets and the lathis. Today, the Ram temple is being built at Ayodhya under the leadership of PM Modi,” Fadnavis said.

The BJP and Shiv Sena broke their 25-year-old alliance due to differences over the sharing the chief minister’s seat following the 2019 Assembly polls. The Sena allied with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party to form the Maha Vikas Agadhi government under the leadership of Thackeray.