Don’t trust Sharad Pawar, I was told, but my own men betrayed me: Former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: Asserting that there will be a chief minister from the Shiv Sena again and that Sena hasn’t shut shop, party president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said he had asked the “betrayers” till the last moment if they wanted to become CM and if they had spoken out clearly, things could have been resolved “but the betrayers didn’t have enough courage.”
Uddhav said he was constantly told that Congress would betray Sena and that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was not to be trusted, but in the end his own people had betrayed him.

“I was constantly being told ‘the Congress will betray us and don’t trust Sharad Pawar at all, he will surely pull you down.’ They also told me these things about Ajit Pawar, but my own people betrayed me… Even at the last minute, I had asked the betrayers, do you want to become CM? If yes, we can talk, I will tell the Congress-NCP and if you want to go with BJP, we can talk to BJP too if they provide clarity on 2-3 questions… we could have told Congress-NCP our MLAs are not happy with you. But they didn’t have courage,” Thackeray said.

He added that “people had welcomed the MVA experiment” and that the three-party alliance was born out of BJP’s denial of what was assured to him.
Thackeray made these remarks in the second part of his interview with Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who is executive editor of Sena mouthpiece Saamna.

After rebel MLAs objected to Uddhav and Aaditya referring to them as “traitors,” Uddhav said he would refer to the rebels as “betrayers.” He added he would launch his statewide tour in August and had already begun a series of meetings with party office-bearers.
Uddhav asked the BJP to “beware of” Eknath Shinde. “Everyone has to pay for their sins. This gentleman will think he is Narendrabhai Modi and stake claim to the prime minister’s post,” he said. Speaking on why he resigned and did not face the trust vote in the state legislature, Uddhav said he would have been ashamed had even one of his MLAs voted against him.
Uddhav said “greed” had made Shinde take up the CM’s post “and now the attempt to compare himself to Balasaheb Thackeray and claim the rebel group was the real Shiv Sena is dirty and disgusting.”
He again urged the Shinde-Fadnavis government not to construct the Metro 3 car shed at Aarey Colony. “The government is in a hurry to stay decisions. After the Aarey decision, I have been repeatedly telling them not to take their anger against me out on Mumbai. Don’t do anything that harms the environment. There is wildlife there,” he stated.