Maharashtra former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray at an event on Sunday said he is a Hindu and a Hindutva leader but Hindutva and the BJP are not synonymous. “I still call myself Hindutvawadi. I have not left Hindutve and will never leave. I left the BJP. And bjp is not Hindutva. I don’t endorse their Hindutva, I am saying it clearly,” Uddhav said two days after he lost his bow and arrow election symbol to Eknath Shinde and his group of MLAs who are now the official Shiv Sena.
“My father taught me Hindutva. BJp’s Hindutva is different. It’s all about making people fight with others and take power. Our Hindutva is linked with the country,” Uddhav said. Without naming Amit Shah, Uddhav Thackeray said today’s Mogambo is now happy.
Taking a swipe at Amit Shah, Uddhav said, “This is true and I swear on my mother and father that Amit Shah gave me a word. I demanded that because I had given a word to my father on his last day that I will make sure that a Shivsainik sits on the CM’s chair. Amitji said ‘okay’. And after that ‘okay’, you can all see what happened.”
“Yes, we used Modiji’s photo on the poster because we had an alliance then — they also used Balasaheb’s photo. There must have been a time when people used to go to Modiji’s rallies wearing his mask. But today Modiji has to wear Balasaheb’s mask,” Uddhav said.