Mumbai: In a major counter-attack on Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said that the party founded by late Bal Thackeray is not anyone's private company and it belongs to all. Shinde, while addressing a rally at BKC's MMRDA grounds, said, "This is not your (Uddhav Thackeray) private Limited company. The Shiv Sena is of shiv-sainiks who have given their sweat for it. Not for people like you, who did partnerships & sold it". Replying to Uddhav's "traitor" remark, Shinde said that true ‘gaddari’ (betrayal) happened in 2019, when then Sena put photos of Bal Thackeray along with PM Narendra Modi on banners and people voted thinking it will be a coalition.


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Retaliating to Udhav Thackeray's Kattapa reference from Baahubali, Shinde said," They call me 'Katappa'. I want to tell you, that even 'Katappa' had self-respect, was not double standard like you"


 



"Maharashtra voters elected you and BJP in Assembly elections, but you betrayed people by allying with Congress and NCP", said Eknath Shinde. The Maharashtra CM asked Thackeray to kneel down at Bal Thackeray's memorial in Mumbai and apologise for 'betraying' people of Maharashtra.


Earlier, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, while addressing a rally at Shivaji Park in Mumbai's Dadar called Shinde a  ''traitor'' and someone who backstabbed him. “The only thing I feel bad and angry about is that when I was admitted to the hospital, the people whom I gave the responsibility (of the state) became 'Katappa' and betrayed us... They were cutting me and thinking that I will never return from the hospital,” Uddhav Thackeray said while addressing the mega rally.



He went on to add, “As per our yearly tradition, there will be a 'Ravana Dahan' ceremony, but the Ravana of this year is different. With time, Ravana also changes... He used to be 10-headed till now...how many heads does he have now? He is 50 times more betraying.”


The BJP, Thackeray insisted, had betrayed the Shiv Sena and this was why the alliance broke. "I swear by my parents that there was talk of half-term. Then Amit Shah said nothing of the sort was decided," Thackeray told the vast gathering. The BJP, he added, is now in the situation they tried to avoid by making Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister. "Why didn't you do it earlier?" he said.


"How much should a man's greed be? He was given the Chief Minister's post. Now he wants the party too," he said, accusing the new Chief Minister of "stealing" his father's party. However, in a big setback to Uddhav Thackeray, his elder brother Jaidev Thackeray shared the stage with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at the rebel faction's Dussehra rally at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai.


Both Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray claim their faction is the "real" Shiv Sena. Shinde's rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray's leadership had led to the collapse to the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June.