BJP indulging in ‘power jihad’: Uddhav Thackeray

Pune, Aug 3 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging in “power jihad” by breaking political parties to be in government.

Countering Union minister Amit Shah’s comment against him as being the head of the “Aurangzeb Fan Club”, he also accused Shah of being the ‘political descendent’ of Ahmad Shah Abdali, an Afghan ruler who defeated Marathas in the battle of Panipat.

Attacking the BJP, Thackeray accused the former ally of breaking parties, a reference to the split in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

“If Muslims are with us after we explain to them our Hindutva, then we are (according to the BJP) the Aurangzeb Fan Club. Then what you are doing is power jihad,” Thackeray said while addressing party workers in Pune.

He also hit out at the Eknath Shinde government over the ‘Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin’ scheme and accused it of bribing voters by giving “revdis” (freebies).