Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, in an exclusive interview with News18, attacked Uddhav Thackeray, chief of Shiv Sena (UBT), for “exploiting the Marathi manoos (Marathi-speaking people) of Mumbai”.
Fadnavis blamed Thackeray and his leaders for forcing Marathi manoos to settle in nearby small towns such as Vasai and Virar. “Thackeray didn’t do anything for the ‘Marathi Manoos’ staying in Mumbai. What did they do regarding mill lands? Old chawls or cessed buildings? They have not taken a single decision that would benefit Marathi-speaking people and allow them to stay there. Most of the Marathi-speaking people staying in these areas have moved to small towns like Vasai, Virar. They were running the show in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Why couldn’t they do it? Yes, we were in an alliance with them, in the BMC too. We never had positions like mayor or standing committee chairman in the BMC,” he said.
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Fadnavis gave the example of the BDD chawl redevelopment project initiated by his state government, providing better housing for residents at the same location. “Ninety-five per cent of residents in the BDD chawls are Marathi-speaking. People are getting 600-sqft houses compared to their earlier houses admeasuring 120 sqft. Why couldn’t Uddhav do this? He should show one iconic project he can claim. We built the coastal road and Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL).”
‘THACKERAY BETRAYED MANDATE, HIS ARROGANCE, AMBITION LED TO SENA SPLIT’
Fadnavis reiterated that the BJP neither broke the Shiv Sena nor Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). “We didn’t break any party. The Shiv Sena split due to the arrogance and ambition of Uddhav Thackeray. Thackeray betrayed the mandate and went with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). During that time, he had said that he wants to make a Shiv Sena leader the CM. People thought that Eknath Shinde, who was doing all the ground work, would be made the CM, but later Thackeray became the CM. He realised that Shinde has the strength of MLAs. He wanted to make Aaditya the CM. It was the fear of Uddhav Thackeray that he didn’t want a repeat episode of Narayan Rane, who was a powerful leader in the Shiv Sena, especially when Thackeray got launched. Hence, he started clipping the wings of Shinde. Aaditya, despite being a junior minister, used to hold meetings of departments led by Eknath Shinde and never invited him. All these reasons led to the split in the party,” said Fadnavis.
‘CONSTITUTION CAN’T BE CHANGED; RAJ THACKERAY ON BAL THACKERAY’S PATH’
Fadnavis refuted the criticism of the opposition targeting the BJP, suggesting that if they come to power again, they will change the Constitution of India. “If you refer to the Keshwanand Bharati case order, the full bench of the Supreme Court has said that the basic framework of the Constitution can’t be changed. If the Modi government wanted to change anything, they could have done it easily, as they had the mandate since 2014. This narrative that the opposition is trying to set up won’t work.”
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Fadnavis believes that Raj Thackeray, who extended support to the BJP, will certainly help the party in the state. “You can’t ignore the regional identity in politics. If someone talks about the same in politics, it is not wrong at all. Raj Thackeray has been speaking about Hindutva for the past five years. The common thread that connects Raj Thackeray and us is ‘Hindutva’. Earlier, Balasaheb Thackeray also used to speak about regionalism, and later he widened the scope and adopted the ideology of Hindutva. Raj is also walking on the same path,” said Fadnavis.
‘NDA MADE MAHARASHTRA NO. 1’
In an interview, Fadnavis also claimed that after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came to power in the state of Maharashtra, it has become the number one state in terms of industries and investment.
“For the past two years, we have been in the number one position. If we put together the investment that came in Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi, we are still ahead of them. But that was not the case when Uddhav government was there in the state. From number one, we went down to number two and later number three,” said Fadnavis.
ON WASHING MACHINE, ALLIANCE & SEAT SHARING
While talking about the alliance issue, Fadnavis stated that the alliance with Shinde-led Shiv Sena is an emotional issue, whereas the alliance with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP is a political issue. Fadnavis also admitted that they had to convince the BJP cadre and voters after the inclusion of Ajit Pawar and his faction into the Mahayuti. “In western Maharashtra, we had always contested elections against each other, but we convinced our cadre and voters that in such a scenario, where the opposition is trying to isolate PM Modi, we have to make these kind of political alliances.”
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Fadnavis, while replying to the question of whether the BJP is a washing machine, said, “Ashok Chavan has joined our party after he got a clean chit from the court. No other leaders have joined our party. Investigative agencies, after their investigations, have not found anything against Ajit Pawar. Hence, his name is not there in any charge sheet…Although we are in alliance with the Shiv Sena and NCP, we have not made any deals with them to give clean chits. That is the work of the agencies. If they find anything against them, they will take action.”
While speaking on the seat-sharing issue, Fadnavis admitted that BJP wanted Thane and Mumbai South seats, but in negotiations, both these seats were given to the Shinde Sena, and in return, the BJP got the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat for Narayan Rane. “Bargaining happened over the Thane seat until the last date as the BJP was keen to contest. But if you see the data, the BJP has won this seat five times and Sena seven times. The Sena argued that they are taking ahead the legacy of Anand Dighe, who got this seat for the Shiv Sena. Hence if this seat goes to the BJP, the local cadre of the Shiv Sena will get upset. They demanded that seat and we exchanged the seat with Palghar,” said Fadnavis.