Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on August 7 criticised Uddhav Thackeray for aligning with the Congress, a party he accused of insulting Balasaheb Thackeray. Shinde pointed out that the Congress had honoured former Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill, who had once revoked Shiv Sena’s voting rights, calling it a betrayal of Balasaheb’s legacy.
In a video interview with PTI, Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde lashed out at Uddhav Thackeray for calling him a “traitor” and accused him of abandoning Balasaheb Thackeray’s core Hindutva principles.
Eknath Shinde criticised Uddhav for attending a dinner hosted by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying, “It is shocking that he is visiting the home of a leader from the same party that honoured the person who once revoked Balasaheb Thackeray’s voting rights.”
Shinde said it was the Congress that had rewarded former Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill, who had revoked Balasaheb Thackeray’s voting rights, with a ministerial post in the UPA government. “You are meeting those who insulted Balasaheb, those who disrespected Savarkar, questioned Operation Sindoor, and doubted the bravery of our armed forces,” Shinde remarked.
In 2022, Eknath Shinde brought down Uddhav Thackeray’s MVA government by leading a rebellion with over two-thirds of Shiv Sena MLAs and aligning with the BJP. The Election Commission later recognised Shinde’s group as the legitimate Shiv Sena, granting it the party name and symbol, while Thackeray had to adopt a new name for his faction.
Shinde also responded to Thackeray’s ‘gaddar’ (traitor) remark, saying it was actually Thackeray who betrayed the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly mandate by forming an alliance with the Congress and NCP.
“The word Uddhav Thackeray used for me fits him perfectly. In 2019, Maharashtra gave a clear mandate to the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. Yet, he chose to align with Congress just to secure the Chief Minister’s chair. The label he calls me—betrayer, traitor—applies to him completely,” Shinde said.
He said the people of Maharashtra gave the real betrayers a lesson in the 2024 assembly elections. “They didn’t even secure enough votes to be recognised as the leader of the opposition. The election results have clearly stamped out the true betrayers of the state,” Shinde stated. He also criticised Thackeray for condemning his meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“When I meet Modi ji and Amit bhai, they create a fuss and say I’m meeting my ‘masters.’ But we take pride in meeting those who have driven Maharashtra’s development. These leaders fulfilled Balasaheb’s dreams by removing Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and constructing the Ram Temple in Ayodhya,” Shinde said.
Responding to the Congress-led opposition’s criticism of the Bihar electoral roll revision, Shinde said opposition parties are already anticipating defeat and trying to preemptively justify it. “When they sense a loss, they start preparing excuses early. Realising they are likely to lose the Bihar elections, they’ve begun attacking the SIR exercise,” he stated. “These attempts to create a perception do not always succeed. People are intelligent,” Shinde said.
