BJP scared of Uddhav Thackeray, says Sanjay Raut after Amit Shah's Nanded rally

Sanjay Raut. File Pic

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was "scared" of his party chief Uddhav Thackeray and said it was a good thing, reported news agency PTI.

The comments came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a rally in Nanded tore into Thackeray over the chain of events post the 2019 Assembly polls which led to the unravelling of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.

Amit Shah called Uddhav Thackeray's joining hands with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government as betrayal for the sake of power.

In a social media post, Sanjay Raut said, "It is good the BJP is scared of Uddhav Thackeray. It ensured a split in the party (Shiv Sena), gave name and its symbol to traitors; still the fear of Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena (original) has not gone."

"Amit Shah spoke for 20 minutes of which seven minutes were spent on Uddhavji. His speech is amusing. I wonder whether his rally at Nanded was part of BJP's Maha Sampark Abhiyan or an occasion to criticise Thackeray," Raut added.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said the BJP must introspect about the questions posed to Uddhav Thackeray.

The BJP is caught in its own web, Raut claimed.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Ambadas Danve said the BJP keeps criticising the Shiv Sena (UBT) for breaking the alliance and forsaking Hindutva by joining hands with the NCP and Congress.

In a tweet, Danve said, "I am curious about what kind of Hindutva BJP achieved when it joined hands with Farooq Abdulla, Mebooba Mufti, Nitish Kumar, Mayawati, Om Prakash Chautala among others."

Alleging the BJP was trying to lure some leaders into forging an alliance before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Danve said the BJP's Hindutva remains intact when it gets together with these secular parties.

But the Shiv Sena (UBT) gets criticised for doing the same, Danve claimed.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday accused Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray of betraying the BJP for the chief minister's post after the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2019 by joining hands with Nationalist Congress Party and Congress.

Addressing a rally at Nanded as a part of the BJP's outreach campaign to mark the completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi government, Shah said the BJP didn't bring down the Thackeray-led MVA government last year.

He said Shiv Sainiks who were tired of Thackeray's policies and were not ready to go with the NCP headed by Sharad Pawar.

He said in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, people have to decide who will become the prime minister of the country, Narendra Modi or Congress' Rahul Gandhi.

(With inputs from PTI)