Buldhana/Maharashtra: The Bharatiya Janata Party will not win the national, state or even Zilla parishad elections, Shiv Sena Udhhav faction chief Uddhav Thackeray claimed on Thursday.
He was not fighting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi or any other person but opposing autocracy, he said, speaking at rallies in Matola, Chikhli and Jalgaon-Jamod in eastern Maharashtra's Buldhana district, reports PTI.
The budget presented by the Narendra Modi government earlier this month would be its last, Thackeray said, adding, "The BJP would not be able to win power in Delhi, state or even Zilla Parishad (district local government body) for the next hundred years." Noting that the budget mentioned farmers, the youth, women and the poor, Thackeray said it took Prime Minister Modi ten years to remember these sections of society.
Speaking at Chikhli, he claimed there were not enough government doctors to treat the victims of the recent incident of suspected food poisoning in the Lonar area of Buldhana.
He also raised the issues of drought-affected farmers and unemployed youth in west Vidarbha.
Thackeray also questioned the number of real beneficiaries of central schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Modi's recent speech in the Lok Sabha was not prime ministerial but was more like a BJP leader's speech, Thackeray said.
Praising the farmers who are protesting at the Shambhu border over the demand for a legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price, he urged farmers in Vidarbha -- which had become infamous for farmer suicides some years ago -- not to end their lives but fight for justice.
The present ruling parties (their ideological predecessors) made no contribution to the freedom struggle, and we must not hand over the country's reins to them again, Thackeray said, without naming the BJP.
His party was fighting to save democracy and resisting autocracy, he said at another public meeting at Jalgaon-Jamod.
"I am not against Modi or (Amit) Shah or any person. I am against autocracy," said Thackeray, who parted ways with the BJP in 2019.