Mumbai (Maharashtra): Hitting out at Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray for breaking ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party in November 2019, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that people in the united Shiv Sena felt that they were being "wronged" and decided to part ways with Sena (UBT) chief to protect the dignity and identity of their party.
In an interview with ANI, Piyush Goyal said that Uddhav Thackeray "backstabbed" Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Devendra Fadnavis to fulfil his ambition of becoming Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
"The people of Shiv Sena who believed in Shiv Sena felt they have been wronged. And PM Modi and Devendra Fadnavis have been wronged. After all, who is the person who backstabbed PM Modi or Fadnavis? Uddhav Thackeray, who treacherously, just to fulfil an ambition to become Chief Minister, actually backstabbed the BJP. Shiv Sena realised that and they decided to keep him out and maintain the dignity and identity of the Shiv Sena," Piyush Goyal said.
When asked about the accusations that have been made against the BJP for spoiling the existence of regional parties, Goyal said that it was former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who decided to break every principle of Shiv Sena.
"What have we done in this? Uddhav Thackeray ji fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in PM Modi's name, and the 2019 Assembly elections in Devendra Fadnavis's name, On so many platforms and stages where Uddhav Thackeray was also there, it was stated that Devendra Fadnavis will be our Chief Minister. The entire narrative in the 2019 assembly was around Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister. But Uddhav Thackeray ji, just for a petty desire to become Chief Minister, and the ambition that he wanted to have his name as the chief minister, and maybe in the process voiced his son on the state, decided to break every principle of the Shiv Sena," he said.
He further said that it's quite shocking to see "Uddhav Thackeray sitting in the lap of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi".
"After all, the Shiv Sena was founded by Balasaheb Thackeray on the plank of Hindutva. He had very often said that he would rather shut down his party than join hands with the Congress. I mean, it's quite shocking to see Uddhav Thackeray sitting in the lap of Rahul Gandhi today and singing panes of praise," he said.
Targeting NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Piyush Goyal said that the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leadership and its MLAs realised that they were being treated like pawns. Goyal said that NCP leaders at that time were perplexed about the party's high command instructions on their support to the BJP.
"I think the NCP leadership of the state and the NCP MLAs must have realized that 'we have been treated like pawns'. They might be thinking one day we are told to support the BJP, and another day we are told to withdraw. And this has happened three times in the last five years. This is why I would suspect that both these parties' leaders decided to keep these two families out," he said.
On Sharad Pawar's "several regional parties could merge with the Congress in the near future", Goyal said that NCP(SCP) chief remarks came right after the polling for the Lok Sabha elections was held in Baramati where he might be sensing defeat. Goyal said that Pawar has caused real damage to the NCP just to protect his daughter Supriya Sule.
"Bear in mind that when did Sharad Pawar make the statement that he will merge his party or smaller party should merge? After Baramati. He realized that they were losing Baramati. Now when he realized that they are even losing Baramati, it's became very evident that the NCP in Maharashtra was the Ajit Pawar NCP. He is the natural leader of Rashtravadi Congress in Maharashtra," Piyush Goyal said.
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Back in 2023, when Ajit Pawar along with other several other leaders broke ties with Sharad Pawar to take oath with the Maharashtra government.
Union Commerce Minister further said that Sharad Pawar has played games with the NCP and it is Ajit Pawar who is the natural leader of this party.
"In 2014, he (Sharad Pawar) directly in fact supported the BJP. In 2017, he made overtures to support the BJP. 2019, he told Ajit Pawar to get sworn in along with Devendra Fadnavis. Now this has all caused a sense of frustration in his own party just to protect his daughter, and that is the Parivarvaad that Prime Minister Modi often talks about, just to protect his daughter or to make her the leader instead of the natural leader, Ajit Pawar, he's been really doing damage to his own party," he said.
He further said that Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SCP) have no place in Maharashtra and pan-India politics.
"The entire Shiv Sena is with Eknath Shinde. The majority of MPs, almost all the MLAs, have all gone with Eknath Shinde. More and more local people are joining Eknath Shinde. Therefore, with the true Shiv Sena being with Eknath Shinde, it's only a splinter group led by Uddhav Thackeray and his son, whom he's trying to make his political heir. These two splinter groups really have no place in Maharashtra or Indian politics. And therefore, when they realized that they are only small players, they started talking about merging in Congress," Goyal said.
Piyush Goyal will face Congress' Bhushan Patil in the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat.
He further said during his campaigning in the Mumbai North constituency, people thanked him for the welfare policies laid out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"When I go out campaigning, I find so many people who come up to me and thank me, thanks to PM Modi, I have got water in my home. I go to a village, I get a young girl child come up and thank me and tell me that you must convey to pm Modi how thanks to his Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, my tribal family today has a pucca home and we live in dignity. I have people who come up to me and thank me for Pradhan Mantri's maternity initiatives to support women in maternity and to create funds for the girl child," he said.
When asked if people during his campaign are showing concerns about whether the Constitution will be changed which has been touted by the Opposition on multiple occasions, Goyal said, "I promise you that in my, I've been campaigning now nearly two months since the day my name got formally nominated. In the last two months, I promise you, not one person has asked me about any of these subjects. In fact, they feel happy that their hard-earned taxpayer money is being put to good use and corruption is being ended."
"They're happy that direct benefit transfer has helped make 11 crore toilets, which has given dignity to our girl child and our sisters and mothers and daughters because they realized that they used to pay all of these taxes earlier," he added.
Polling in Mumbai North will take place on May 20 in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP's Gopal C Shetty defeated former actor-politician Urmila Matondkar by over 4.65 lakh votes.
—ANI