Thackeray rejects AIMIM alliance offer, slams BJP for its authoritarian approach

"Who has sought an alliance with the AIMIM? This is a game plan and conspiracy of the BJP. The AIMIM and the BJP have a tacit understanding. The BJP has ordered the AIMIM to defame the Shiv Sena, to raise questions on Shiv Sena's Hindutva," Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday.

Mumbai: Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and stated that Shiv Sena is in politics for Hindutva but BJP uses Hindutva for politics. CM said that they have left BJP but not the Hindutva. He further alleges that BJP has a brutal authoritarian approach. Shiv Sena chief further added that BJP is boasting the victory in Uttar Pradesh but it is not a resounding victory as the party has lost seats in the state.

Reacting to Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis's "Janab Sena" statement, Thackeray said they were, are, and will always be a staunch Hindutvavaadi organization. Earlier, on Saturday, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Imtiaz Jaleel caused a stir stating that his party can ally with the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghahdi (MVA) to prevent the BJP from coming to power, evoking sharp reactions from Sena. Meanwhile, later on Saturday, Devendra Fadnavis termed Shiv Sena as "Janab Sena" while responding to the AIMIM alliance offer to the Thackeray-led party.

Thackeray in a virtual address to the MPs and office bearers of Shiv Sena criticized the alliance and alleged it as a game plan of opposition and conspiracy of BJP. Thackeray said that Shiv Sena will never join an alliance with AIMIM. The party has never and never will be associated with someone who bows before the grave of Aurangzeb.

On the allegation that Shiv Sena is being called Muslim-oriented, Uddhav Thackeray said that Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat had now made a statement to create a 'branch of Sangh' for Muslims and wrote ghazals in Urdu. He questioned can we call Bhagwat Khan.

Shiv Sena chief added that the BJP has not done anything in the last 7 years. VP Singh was in power when the Kashmiri Pandits were persecuted. He had the support of the BJP. Thackeray added that the Shiv Sena opposed Prime Minister VP Singh because he had gone to the Jama Masjid but BJP did not say a word then.

Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, said the Sena will launch 'Shiv Sampark Mohim', a mass outreach programme, on March 22 in 19 districts across Vidarbha and Marathwada regions in Maharashtra on Thackeray's orders to dispel the confusion the BJP was trying to create about Sena on various issues.

Raut recalled that the BJP had formed a government with the pro-Pakistan and separatist PDP in Jammu-Kashmir (in 2015). He sarcastically said that it was a revolutionary alliance (between PDP-BJP) that gave a new direction to the country. Now, we will tell the people which is the real Janab Sena, Raut said quoting Thackeray.

Thackeray also accused Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of murdering democracy by delaying the approval to 12 names sent by the MVA to him to be appointed as MLCs from the Governor's quota.

(With agency inputs)