Use your own parents’ photos for votes, according to Uddhav Thackeray

In an interview with his party mouthpiece Saamana, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who was ousted by a surprise Shiv Sena uprising last month, said that Eknath Shinde had been trying to bring him down even while he was ill in the hospital and unable to travel. In order to make room for new leaves, he compared the rebels to “rotten leaves” of a tree.

“My government is gone, the Chief Minister’s post is gone, I have no regrets. But my own people turned out to be traitors. They were trying to pull down my government when I was recovering from my surgery,” Uddhav Thackeray said in the detailed interview.Uddhav Thackeray predicted that the Shiv Sena would triumph in the conflict in the courts and on the streets, feeling bitter about the mutiny that now threatens to strip him of power over the organisation his father Bal Thackeray founded.

“They have betrayed me, split the party. They should seek votes using their own fathers’ images. Stop begging for votes, using the images of the father of Shiv Sena,” he said.

The Shiv Sena leader recalled hearing rumours that “some were praying for my health and others were praying that he stayed poorly” as he was recuperating from a severe neck procedure that temporarily rendered him limbless.

“As the family head and paksha pramukh, I was unable to walk after the surgery since they were actively plotting to have me killed. This awful reality will always be a part of my life. I had assigned someone the role of number two and given him responsibility for the celebration. You betrayed the trust I placed in you to take care of the party “In what seemed to be a direct reference to Eknath Shinde, Mr. Thackeray remarked.

The Shiv Sena leader claimed that the rebels were angry with him for being able to maintain the organization’s success even after Bal Thackeray’s passing. He claimed that it would be like “separating the Congress from the Gandhis” to “separate the Shiv Sena from the Thackerays.”He said in the entire crisis, he blamed himself the most. “I put too much trust in some Sena workers and leaders. It is my mistake to have trusted them for such a long time,” he said.

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