Mumbai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday that Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray betrayed BJP and, therefore, he must be "taught a lesson. Addressing a BJP meeting, Shah said that anything is tolerable in politics but betrayal, NDTV reported.
Shah accused Thackeray of splitting Shiv Sena and the events that followed. A section of Sena turned against Thackeray due to his greed. Thus, Shah implied that BJP had no hand in the Eknath Shinde rebellion in Shiv Sena and the crashing of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by Thackeray in Maharashtra, NDTV reports.
According to Shah, Thackeray betrayed BJP and its ideology along with insulting people's mandate in the state.
Saying that Thackeray was greedy for power, Shah said that BJP never promised Thackeray the CM's chair. BJP practices politics openly but not in closed rooms, Shah said.
Those who cheat in politics deserve punishment, and the same will be achieved through the "Mission 150" for the civic elections in Mumbai. NDTV reports that BJP has been eyeing the control of Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in India, for a long.
Shah said that the Narendra Modi-guided "BJP and real Shiv Sena alliance" aims to win 150 seats in BMC elections. The public is with Modi and not with Thackeray, who betrayed ideology, he added.
The Sena and the BJP had shared an uneasy relationship since the alliance broke in 2014 over seat sharing in the run-up to the assembly polls, but they got together after the state delivered a split verdict.
In 2014, the alliance between Sena and BJP turned sour, and in 2019 the former completely left the latter and joined Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, thus forming the state government with Congress.
Thackeray had then accused BJP of betraying Sena and spreading in Maharashtra at Sena's cost. In early 2022, he had stated that Sena wasted 25 years allying with BJP.