Shiv Sena will win power in Maharashtra in next elections, says Uddhav Thackeray

Uddhav Thackeray addressing party workers in Mumbai on Tuesday. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said that the Sena would win the next Assembly polls in Maharashtra and there would be a Sena chief minister in the state. “We will defeat those who challenge us, and we will win the polls. Party activists should take the party into people’s minds, and we will win the polls automatically,” said Uddhav, while addressing party workers at an event to mark the 52nd foundation day of the Sena, in Goregaon (East).

He also continued to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his foreign tours and spoke vehemently against the proposed Bullet Train project and the Nanar Refinery in Konkan. “Who will travel on a Bullet train? Everything is being taken out of Mumbai. But, we will not allow any attempt to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra,” said the Sena president.

He further said, the Nanar refinery would not be built. “Take the Nanar project to Vidarbha as a BJP legislator has already demanded it. We will not let it happen in Konkan. The BJP is showing empty dreams of development,” he said. “A UFO was sighted near Modi’s house. Since he has already toured the world, we might hear next that Modi has left for Mars.”

Referring to the state government’s decision to hold the monsoon session of legislature in Nagpur instead of Mumbai, he said, “There is a possibility that the Lok Sabha polls will be held in December.” “BJP has spent crores on advertisements. Now, the BJP has started a Sampark Abhiyan. We should start a satyashodhan (fact finding) abhiyan to know the real beneficiaries of the government’s schemes and initiatives. Let people know the truth,” said Uddhav.

The Sena, in an editorial in the party mouthpiece in Saamana, also said on Tuesday that the “accident” of 2014 would not be repeated in 2019, asserting that the party would form a government in the state on its own and would be in a position to decide who will form the government in Delhi. It also said a delegation of the Assam Gana Parishad, which is in power with the BJP in Assam, met party president Uddhav Thackeray and asked for all regional parties to come together under the leadership of the Sena.

MNS leader Shishir Shinde today joined the Sena and was welcomed by Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. When MNS chief Raj Thackeray left Sena, Shinde had left with him and was founding member of MNS. Shinde shot to fame in 1991 after he along with Sena workers allegedly vandalized Wankhede stadium to disrupt India-Pakistan cricket match.