Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray hinted at a political alliance with Raj Thackeray and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) during a joint victory rally organised by the two parties on Saturday at the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) Dome auditorium in Worli.
Senior leaders of other political parties, like Sharad Pawar-led NCP Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, Mahadev Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Party, and former Rajya Sabha MP Bhalchandra Mungekar were present at the event.
Addressing the victory rally, Uddhav Thackeray said, “Personally, I think that our appearance together is more important than our speech. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has removed the distance between us. We have come together, to stay together,” hinting at a political alliance with the Raj Thackeray-led MNS for the forthcoming elections to the local civic bodies and municipal corporations across Maharashtra.
“We have come together to stay together. We have united to protect Marathi. I want to tell you all that both of us coming together is merely a trailer. This is just the beginning,” Uddhav Thackeray said.
Uddhav referred to forthcoming elections to 29 municipal corporations in Mumbai and said, “Raj Thackeray and I will capture power in the Mumbai civic body as well as Maharashtra.”
Earlier on Saturday, the ‘Aawaz Marathicha’ Marathi Vijay Divas victory rally event began with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) founder-president Raj Thackeray embracing Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on stage as the huge audience applauded heartily, after which Raj Thackeray began his speech.
“I had said in one of my interviews that Maharashtra is bigger than any politics. Today, after 20 years, Uddhav and I have come together. Devendra Fadnavis has managed to do what Balasaheb Thackeray himself could not, by bringing me and Uddhav together,” Raj Thackeray said.
“Why did you force Hindi language on kids from Class 1? Did you do it simply because you have the power to do so? Your power is restricted only to the Vidhan Bhavan, but our power is on the streets,” Raj Thackeray said.
“Why are you forcing Hindi on Maharashtra when Hindi-speaking states are backward and non-Hindi-speaking states are advanced. So what kind of development is going to happen if we learn Hindi?” Raj Thackeray said.
Referring to the 1950s, before Maharashtra was formed as a linguistic state and the attempt to make Mumbai a Union Territory ruled directly by the central government as well as the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation after which the state of Maharashtra was conceded, Raj Thackeray said, “Earlier, language was used to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra. To separate Mumbai from Maharashtra, they first tried to change the language. But after opposition (Samyukta Maharashtra agitation of the 1950s), which led to the formation of the state of Maharashtra, they backed down. I challenge them to touch the Marathi language again.”
“The ruling party (BJP) is arguing that our children are studying in English schools. Their claim makes no sense because Balasaheb Thackeray and my father, Shrikant Thackeray, studied in English medium schools, but does anyone doubt their Marathi pride? Similarly, their Lal Krishna Advani studied in a missionary school. Does anyone doubt their Hindutva?” Raj Thackeray said.
“After you come together as Marathi people, they will try to divide you into castes. At Mira Road, a person was assaulted for not speaking in Marathi. Nobody knew that he was a Gujarati. He was beaten up after an argument. He was not beaten because he was a Gujarati. We have not done anything yet. Be it a Gujarati or anyone else, they must know Marathi, but there is no need to beat people for that. However, if someone creates unnecessary drama, then yes, you hit them below the ears. And one more thing—if you beat someone, don’t shoot videos of it. Let the person who was beaten say he was beaten up. You don’t have to announce it,” Raj Thackeray appealed to MNS workers.
Raj Thackeray’s statement came after MNS workers allegedly vandalised the office of a stock market expert called Shushil Kedia’s office in Worli after Kedia tweeted on Friday from his X handle that “I have been in Mumbai for 30 years and I am not going to learn Marathi”. Kedia tweeted an apology on Saturday.
“The unity of Marathi people must remain and Balasaheb’s dream should be fulfilled,” Raj Thackeray said, after which his cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray began his speech.
“We have come together in order to stay together. The distance between us has been bridged by Devendra Fadnavis. Some people criticise us for abandoning Hindutva, but we are Marathi-speaking Hindus. There are no other Hindus as devout as Marathi-speaking Hindus. We proved this during the 1992 riots. We do not accept Hindi in the BJP’s ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan’ slogan. BJP had come up with the slogan of ‘one country, one election’. Now they are giving slogans like ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan’. We accept Hindu and Hindustan as well, but will never accept Hindi,” Uddhav Thackeray said.
“Marathi people come together after a crisis. But once the crisis is over, Marathi people tend to fight among themselves. From now onwards, we don’t want to see this history repeating,” Uddhav Thackeray said.
“The BJP uses the policy of divide and rule. In Maharashtra, too, they used the policy of dividing society. Marathi people kept fighting with each other. We carried their palanquins (palkhi). Will we just be their palanquin bearers, or will we put our Marathi people on the palanquin?” Uddhav Thackeray said.
“Don’t invite BJP members to anyone’s wedding. They will come, have dinner and start a fight between the husband and wife. Otherwise, they will abduct the bride. This is the BJP’s business. The BJP has nothing of its own,” Uddhav Thackeray said.
“Yesterday, a traitor (Deputy CM Eknath Shinde) shouted ‘Jai Gujarat’. The bearded man in the movie called Pushpa delivered the dialogue — I will not bow down (“Jhukenge nahi”), but this bearded man (Eknath Shinde) says — I will never rise up. No matter what happens, I will never revolt,” Uddhav Thackeray said.
“Marathi people should unite like they had united and fought during the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation (in the 1950s which led to the formation of the state of Maharashtra). Even Marathi people in the BJP should come together,” Uddhav Thackeray said.
“The late Balasaheb Thackeray had appealed to Marathi people to put aside all their disputes between Brahmins and non-Brahmins, Marathas and non-Marathas, Ghati and Konkani, to come together, and I am making the same appeal to you today,” Uddhav Thackeray said, after which Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and chief party spokesperson Sanjay Raut spoke.
“No matter what the BJP decides, they will never be able to swallow Mumbai. No matter how many people like Adani and Shah come together, they will not get Mumbai. Today Thackeray’s power has come together. So they should forget about their dreams,” Sanjay Raut said.
“Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said yesterday that he will teach a lesson to those who do hooliganism. I say Fadnavis could become Chief Minister only because we (Shiv Sena) did hooliganism for 50 years,” Sanjay Raut said.