Had Shah kept his words in 2019, Maha would have got BJP CM now, says Uddhav

mumbai: Asserting that there can be no Shiv Sena chief minister in Maharashtra by keeping the party aside, its president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said had Union Home Minister Amit Shah kept his word of rotating the top post in the state in 2019, the BJP would have been steering the government now.

Addressing his first press conference at Shiv Sena Bhavan, the party headquarters at Dadar, after stepping down as chief minister on June 29, Thackeray also made a fervent appeal to the new government led by Sena rebel Ekanth Shinde not to go ahead with the Metro-3 car shed project at Aarey Colony, a green belt in suburban Goregaon.

In their first cabinet meeting held on Thursday, chief minister Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP directed the state administration to submit a proposal to build the Metro-3 car shed in Aarey Colony instead of Kanjurmarg.

The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had shifted the proposed car shed site to Kanjurmarg from Aarey Colony on ground of environment protection, but the issue got embroiled in a legal dispute.

The way this (Shinde) government was formed and those (the BJP) who formed the government they have said that a so-called Shiv Sainik has been made the chief minister. "Those who did not keep the word two-and-a-half-years back and by back-stabbing (the Sena) again attempts are made to create confusion among the Shiv Sainiks by calling it (Shinde) a Shiv Sena CM, then this is not a Sena CM. There can be no Sena CM by keeping the Sena aside," Thackeray asserted.

"Had everything taken place as decided between me and Amit Shah, the change of power would have been graceful and dignified. And I would not have become the chief minister or MVA would

not have been formed," Thackeray said.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena on Friday accused the BJP of gaining power in the state through immoral means and asked why the party did not honour the pact of rotational chief minister in 2019 if Devendra Fadnavis had to take oath as the deputy chief minister.