“If stayed with them, then party would have ended”: Maharashtra CM Shinde opens up on split with Uddhav Thackeray

New Delhi [India], August 18 (ANI): Calling his decision to part ways with Uddhav Thackeray in 2022 as the right move, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Sunday that if he had stayed with him, then the party would have broken and even the symbol ‘Dhanushbaan’ would be destroyed.

In an interview with ANI, Shinde said that it is the party head’s job to stand behind his workers as they are the one who strengthens the party.

On being asked whether he ever felt accused of his step, Shinde said, “Because the situation was created like that. If we had stayed there with them, then the party would have broken, the party would have ended. And even the symbol of Dhanushbaan would have destroyed. Because if the workers of the party are not there, then how will the party survive? If the head of the party has the responsibility to unite all of us, to advance our party, our policies should be such that people should benefit from the party.”

“The party workers strengthen the party. So when a worker is in trouble, then to stand behind him is the job of the party leader. So we saw that someone else was running the party and someone else was leading. And the incidents that I told you about, they were trying to finish us. If we had remained like this, what would we have done?” Shinde added.

The Maharashtra CM also mentioned that If the united Shiv Sena at that time had an alliance with the BJP, then their ideology would have been fine and they all would have been united.

“The thoughts of Balasaheb Thackeray would have been fine. And our party would have been one party. If the party leader makes a wrong decision in one party, then, should everyone in the party follow that wrong decision? This does not happen in ‘Lokshahi’ (democracy). In a democracy, the majority is important. So when we have 40, 10, and 50 MLAs with us and 10-12 people have the same opinion, then what happens in Lokshahi? We have not done anything wrong. We have kept Lokshahi stable. We have done the work of keeping the party stable. Today Shiv Sena is stable. Dhanushbaan is also present. Today people have also shown who the real Shiv Sena is. We fought in front at 13 places. We won 7 out of them. He (Uddhav) won 6. So it was shown,” Shinde said.

Further, on being asked why he went to Guwahati after parting ways with Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde said that it was his strategy.

“That was our strategy. I went there openly. I didn’t hide. I went there while talking to them. I got Uddhavji’s call. I went there while talking to him. He challenged me a lot. He said, come and show me. You have to go from Worli to Mumbai. They will do this, lakhs of people will come, they will block the roads, bloodshed will happen, MLA people will not be allowed to go to Vidhan Bhawan. I said, look, I am also a worker of Balasaheb Thackeray. I have been a hard worker since my childhood. I have dedicated my life to party, party, party. So I don’t want all this,” he said.

Speaking on allying with Ajit Pawar-led NCP, Eknath Shinde said that after seeing the work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ajit Pawar decided to join the Mahayuti Alliance.

“When I saw the work of PM Modi, the way PM Modi is moving the country forward, doing development, he is moving the developed India forward. So all this development, and seeing the development of the country, and the work of our government, today Ajit Pawar has come with us. Now he is working with us. What do people want? People want fast decisions. So we are the people who make fast decisions,” he said.

The INDIA bloc parties won 30 (Congress 13, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray 9, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) 8) of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Ajit Pawar’s NCP won one of four seats it contested, Shiv Sena won seven and BJP won nine seats.