Raj Thackeray takes swipe at Uddhav for 'torturing voters'; hails Shinde for Dahi Handi

As the Supreme Court referred the petitions filed by the Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions of Shiv Sena to a 5-judge Constitution bench, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, who was away from the public eye for a while due to a hip surgery, on Tuesday, took a dig at the ex-CM and his cousin, Uddhav, asking why did he not raise his voice against Shinde taking over when BJP had earlier stated that the Chief Minister will be from a party that will have more numbers, which was the saffron party. 

He also praised the present Eknath Shinde government for giving an 'adventure sport' tag to the Dahi Handi festival in the state, and slammed the previous Uddhav Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government for 'torturing voters'.

Notably, the Uddhav faction of Shiv Sena had challenged the new Shinde-government formation in the apex court in the month of July.

While addressing an event at Ravindra Natya Mandir in Mumbai, the MNS chief stated, "It was decided whichever party has more MLAs, Chief minister will be from that party only. Even PM Modi said in his speech in front of Uddhav that CM will be Devendra Fadnavis. Even Amit Shah said the same, then why you (Uddhav) didn't raise objection.. You should have said it then why different talks are going on.. Why are you saying that whatever is happening is in the state right now is wrong? People stand in queue for two hours to vote you and you end up torturing them. Whereas the present govt has given sport position to the Hindu festival, Dahi Handi."

Speaking over the long continuing loudspeaker controversy, Raj Thackeray said that after raising his voice over the matter, now around 93% loudspeakers have been taken down. He said, "For so many years there were talks to remove loudspeakers playing outside mosques.. But we made a way for it, that if you won't stop then, we will play hanuman chalisa. We took march against loudspeakers. Nearly 92-93% loudspeakers have been taken down, remaining have taken down the volume."

Politics in Maharashtra

In the month of June, Eknath Shinde's rebellion led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. On June 30, Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Devendra Fadnavis as the Deputy Chief Minister. Later, Shinde also won the floor test by a 164-99 margin, proving his government’s majority and cementing his position as Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court referred the petitions filed by the Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions of Shiv Sena to a 5-judge Constitution bench. While Shinde and the group of rebel MLAs were the first ones to move the apex court against the disqualification notice issued by Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, the Uddhav Thackeray faction challenged the new government formation and the Speaker's election. An SC bench directed that the matter will come up for hearing on August 25.