MVA meet: Thackeray bats for announcing CM face first; Pawar, Cong silent | Politics News

But this policy was detrimental as it would lead to one party trying to defeat the other’s candidate to maintain an upper hand in the alliance, he said. “First, decide (the CM’s face) and then go ahead but do not go by this policy (those having the most seats will get the CM’s post). Uddhav Thackeray will back any candidate announced by Congress and NCP (SP) as the CM face of MVA. I don’t have the feeling that I am fighting for myself but it is for the rights of Maharashtra,” he said.

Thackeray also asked the MVA cadres to rise above self-interest and fight for the sake of protecting Maharashtra’s pride and interest and urged them to be the ambassadors of the opposition alliance in the state. On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for a secular civil code in the country, Thackeray wondered if he had given up Hindutva.

During his Independence Day speech, Modi had said, “I would say, it is the need of the hour that India should have a secular civil code. We have lived 75 years with a communal civil code. Now, we have to move towards a secular civil code. Only then would religion-based discrimination end. It would also end the disconnect the common people feel.”

The PM noted that the Supreme Court has given various directions in this regard. The spirit of the Constitution also encourages such a code, he said, referring to Article 44 under the Directive Principles of State Policy. Thackeray slammed the PM and asked, “Have you abandoned Hindutva? You aligned with Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar who do not believe in Hindutva.” He also targeted the PM over the Waqf (Amendment) Bill and asked why it was not passed when the BJP was in absolute majority.

“Why did you bring the Waqf Bill to drive a wedge between us? And if you had to bring it, why did you not do it when you had the majority? My MPs were not there because they were with me. If it was going to be discussed, our MPs would have taken part in it,” Thackeray said.

Thackeray’s party came under criticism for not putting its view on the bill when it came for discussion in Lok Sabha last week. The bill was later sent to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny. “If you are going to steal Waqf Board land and give it to your industrialist friends, just like you are taking away land from our Hindu temples and giving it to your contractor friends, we will not allow any wrongdoing,” he said while demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into land deals in Ayodhya.

Thackeray also dared the Election Commission to announce the schedule for Maharashtra polls. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader and state industries minister Uday Samant said there was no consensus in the speeches of leaders of the three parties that form the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.

Thackeray’s remarks also prove that he betrayed Hindutva and the Sena-BJP alliance for the post of chief minister, the state BJP said in a post on X. At the MVA meeting, NCP (SP) leader and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule hit out at the Mahayuti government over its flagship Ladki Bahin Yojana and said the ruling alliance had committed the sin of fixing a price for sisters’ love. She jibed that leaders in the ruling dispensation remembered their sisters only after the Lok Sabha elections.

The ruling bloc, which consists of the BJP (9), the Shiv Sena (7) and the NCP (1), bagged just 17 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while MVA won 30 seats.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)