‘Forget friends, today’s BJP will eat its own… Where is the original BJP in BJP?… Fadnavis ji has finished them off’: Aaditya Thackeray

As the Shiv Sena heads into its first election after the split in the party, one of the major charges thrown at the Uddhav Thackeray faction by its rivals is that it has “diluted” its Hindutva agenda by siding with the Congress and NCP. The head of the Sena (UBT)’s youth wing, generally accepted as the heir to the Thackeray legacy, Aaditya Thackeray says the faction led by his father is representative of “true Hindutva… that takes everyone together”, unlike the BJP’s “electoral Hindutva”. He also says that the primary goal of Opposition parties like the Sena (UBT) is protecting the Constitution. Excerpts:

It has been good. One can see the public support for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which is also the INDIA bloc. Even as the BJP is trying to polarise on multiple issues, people are asking specific questions about what they have done in the past 10 years. About unemployment, about what Maharashtra has got. It is zero… We have lost our pride and strength to Gujarat.

In the agriculture sector, no farmer is happy. They haven’t received compensation for damages due to climate crises… unemployment and inflation are on the rise. Our industries and mega infrastructure projects are being pushed to Gujarat…

So this election is about getting Maharashtra’s voice to Delhi. The BJP is trying to stop our voice from being heard… Of other states, the South has decided to vote against the BJP. And what have Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh received from the BJP in 10 years? Every state has seen only polarisation, over religion, caste…

The BJP with whom we had a friendly relationship was the BJP of (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji… Today it feels like the BJP does not need friends at all. Tomorrow they may feel that no non-BJP party should even