Maharashtra polls: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray blames BJP's central leadership for split
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said had Rajnath been the BJP chief, the alliance would have been intact.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has blamed BJP for breaking the 25-year-old alliance. In an exclusive interaction with our correspondent Sahil Joshi, Thackeray accused the BJP's central leadership for the split.
"My intention was never to break alliance. Things were going good till the leaders like Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde were handling the alliance issues, it got worst only when Delhi-appointed people got involved in the seat sharing negotiations."
"We were told by the BJP's state in-charge Om Mathur that his party's parliamentary board wants him to negotiate for equal number of seats in the forthcoming Assembly polls. BJP leadership can decide about their number of seats in the polls but how can they tell us about how many seats we should contest," said Thackeray.
On the question about the BJP's allegations that his CM ambitions as the reason behind the split, Thackeray said, "If they blame my ambition to become CM behind the break up, I would like to ask them why they wanted more seats?"
The Shiv Sena chief said had Rajnath been the BJP chief, the alliance would have been intact.
"I had told Rajnath Singh to hold the BJP president position till Maharashtra polls. We (Shiv Sena-BJP) would have been together, had Rajnath been the BJP chief."
Thackeray said his party always supported Modi for the PM post. "Day before BJP Parliamentary Board was to nominate Modi as the PM candidate, he had called me to seek support for his candidature for the PM post."
"I didn't complained when we were given only one berth in the union cabinet. I will speak to PM Modi when he returns from US."
On Amit Shah's speech at Kolhapur
"With the change in Amit Shah's approach and his speech at Kolhapur, it is evident that now they (BJP) don't want us as an ally."
"Now people should realise those who couldn't keep old friends of achche din together should not be trusted."
"BJP became strong in Maharashtra because of Balasaheb's charisma and now they are ditching us."
"BJP wants to break Maharashtra. Now the people of the state have to decide."
On Raj Thackeray
"I had called Raj Thackeray for the first time when I came back from Aaj Tak's Panchayat Aajtak and it was then when I came to know that he is not well."
About his CM ambition
"The way people voted for Mamta Banerjee, Jayalalithaa and Naveen Patnaik, the people of my state will vote for Shiv Sena. If people want, I will become CM."