Uddhav lashes out at Amit Shah in Nagpur

NAGPUR: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday upped the ante against BJP leader and union home minister Amit Shah, daring him to act on his threats, step into the arena and finish off the party. Addressing a gathering at Kalmeshwar near Nagpur, Thackeray also lashed out at the BJP, saying its leaders had been directed in a closed-door meeting to break the Opposition ranks by targetting him and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar.
“Amit Shah came to Nagpur 8-10 days ago and Pune a few days later. He referred to me as a member of the Aurangzeb fan club then,” said Thackeray. “Four days ago, he came to Nagpur and spoke about politically finishing me and Sharad Pawar in the upcoming elections,” he alleged, claiming party leaders had been instructed to target the duo and rupture opposition unity. “They should stop this closed-door business now. If they have the guts, they should come to the field and act on their threat of finishing us,” he declared.
Thackeray further claimed BJP wanted to swallow the entire state of Maharashtra. “They don’t want the Shiv Sena. They are also against Sharad Pawar because they want to loot Maharashtra. That’s why they want to finish us both politically,” he said.
Maharashtra was the state of Shivaji and its people would decide his political future, not the BJP or Amit Shah, he noted. “The ensuing elections are not about power but about preventing Maharashtra from getting looted,” he said. He also wondered if RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat agreed with the BJP’s brand of Hindutva which involved breaking other parties and poaching opposition leaders.
Thackeray was in Nagpur on Sunday to unveil a statue of Shivaji Maharaj at Kalmeshwar. “The statue I unveiled today is a magnificent one. The artist deserves compliments for it. But what happened to the statue of Shivaji Maharaj at Malvan in Konkan,” he asked. The Shivaji statue in Malvan, inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi last December, collapsed on August 26 this year, triggering widespread protests and a political slugfest.
“The Malvan incident was shameful for the whole nation. Chief minister Eknath Shinde claimed the statue collapsed due to strong winds. But the report of the committee that probed the incident says it fell due to the wind because of inferior workmanship,” he alleged, accusing the BJP-led Mahayuti government of siphoning off money from the construction of the statue.