Twitter users remind Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray about his promise of declaring Aarey a forest if voted to power with #AadityaTeraVaada
Aaditya Thackeray had criticised the Aarey tree-cutting for the Metro car shed
After Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray won an Assembly seat from the Worli constituency on Wednesday, #AadityaTeraVaada began making the rounds on social media reminding Aaditya of his promises. Mumbaikars and nature-lovers who have been opposing the tree-cutting in Aarey took to Twitter reminding Thackeray junior of his claims with regard to declaring Aarey a forest.
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Thackeray and his party had opposed the Metro car-shed proposal in the BMC. Aaditya had also criticised the MMRCL and its officials for undertaking tree-cutting at Aarey in the night. Many had then slammed Aaditya for being a mere Twitter activist. He had in turn publicly stated that if the Sena came to power, he would ensure that Aarey would be declared as a forest to protect its biodiversity. The Aarey Milk Colony, however, did not feature in the party's election manifesto.
On Thursday, Aaditya became the first Thackeray to contest elections and win an Assembly seat with a huge margin. Twitter user and activist Sahil M Parsekar immediately tweeted saying that now that the Shiv Sena is in power, "I urge @AUThackeray to keep his promise and declare Aarey a forest. #AadityaTeraVaada #DeclareAareyForest."
NOTA goes up
The Jogeshwari East constituency, of which Aarey Colony is a part, saw the number of NOTA voters going up substantially in Monday's elections. As many as 12,009 NOTA votes were cast, constituting 8.08 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency. Ravindra Waikar of the Sena won the seat with 90,401 votes (60.82 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency). "@AUThackeray you are in power now. Time to show your strength through actions and not only on twitter. #AadityaTeraVaada," another social media user tweeted.
Demand for probe
In September, Aaditya Thackeray had addressed a press conference with environmentalists highlighting the biodiversity at Aarey. The consultant who had suggested Aarey for setting up the Metro car depot be probed, he had demanded at the time.
"@AUThackeray, will you prove to be different from all the other politicians who make promises during elections BUT NEVER FOLLOW UP ON THEM? Will you follow up on the promises you have made? Are you different from all the other politicians? #AadityaTeraVaada #SaveAareyForest," a Twitter user questioned him on Thursday.
8.08%
Percentage of NOTA votes in constituency that houses Aarey
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