- Why did you backstab us when we gave you everything? Aditya Thackeray asks MLAs Who Switched to Shinde Camp at CNN-News18 Town Hall
- CNN-News18 Townhall: Resign and face BMC election; Aditya Thackeray to Eknath Shinde
Shiv Sena leader and former Maharashtra minister Aditya Thackeray on Saturday said he has only two questions for the 40-odd party MLAs who sided with Eknath Shinde leading to the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government. “Why did you backstab us when we gave you everything and why have you not resigned yet to face elections as it happens in any democracy,” Thackeray asked at the CNN-News18 Town Hall.
Speaking at the event, Thackeray shot down criticism that he and his father, then CM Uddhav Thackeray, remained inaccessible or that the party’s succession plan is meant to favour him.
“I have always been around. I was given ministries that otherwise no one volunteers for. But when you have ambitions and pressures that can’t be spoken of, you jump ship,” he said.
“They shifted the goalpost left, right and centre. They blamed our allies for ruining their political fortunes. They spoke about Hindutva… Tomorrow they may blame me for wearing a blue shirt every single day.”
Challenging the Eknath Shinde camp and the BJP for elections, Thackeray said: “Let’s face BMC election now, no problem. Resign and face election. We will accept the public mandate… Mumbaikars know what we have done for the city. Be it during Covid-19 and being honest with the numbers to sustainable development, I think people would prefer Mumbaikars to be running Mumbai rather than taking their diktat from somewhere else,” he said.
Also read: CNN-NEWS 18 Town Hall Mumbai Chapter, Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra
Listing the works done by the Uddhav Thackeray government, the former minister said: “The Hindmata region and Gandhi market area of Mumbai did not flood this year due to the rainwater harvesting and percolation pits we created. This is a proud moment for the BMC as well.” He pointed out that Mumbai’s progress rate must not be compared to that of Shanghai or Singapore.
Speaking about Mumbai’s biggest concerns he said, “ Cities are growth centres and it is upto us to promote ease of living and define what urbanism is. I think our main focus areas would be housing, quality education, healthcare, roads and public transport.”
Highlighting how his party had tackled civic issues, he stated, “Every single week that we were in Government I had meetings with 16 different agencies for the betterment of areas like schools, parks and coastal roads. In my opinion, either make a single authority for Mumbai or simply just get together and take swift action.”
In conversation with Zakka Jacob on the controversy over the Metro car shed in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony, Thackeray said, “ The issue is not just about a particular land or about trees. It is a living, breathing forest. We only stopped the work at Aarey. There are some faults with that line. Rs 10,000 crore escalation was done before December 2019. According to which norm? Nobody knows.”
