MUMBAI: Senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi, a fixture at the party’s annual Dussehra rallies at Shivaji Park, was booed off the dais on Sunday by Sainiks angry at his utterances against party chief Uddhav Thackeray’s mild leadership style in an interview last week.
Uddhav and his son Aditya tried to pacify the agitated Sainiks raising anti-Joshi slogans. Uddhav’s wife Rashmi even ventured into the assembly to calm down the workers. Joshi finally left the venue.
Uddhav did not mention the incident or refer to the memorial of the late party chief Balasaheb Thackeray, on which Joshi had criticized him, in his address. But Uddhav said he would not work under pressure and that the Sainiks were the final arbiters of his position as Sena president. “If you feel that I have lost your confidence, then I will step down. I am ready to leave this stage.”
In a jolt to estranged cousin Raj Thackeray, Uddhav officially welcomed MLA Harshavardhan Jadhav into the Sena.
In his first Dussehra rally after Thackeray’s death last November, Uddhav targeted deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and demanded a judicial probe into the Rs 70,000-crore irrigation scam. “He should be made to face an inquiry.”
The Sena chief criticized the state government for failing to nab activist Narendra Dabholkar’s killers. He also called CM Prithviraj Chavan “ineffective” and “indecisive” and alleged that Chavan is sitting on the Sena’s cluster development proposal for Thane. “He will be responsible if there is a house collapse,” he warned.
Uddhav said the BJP leadership had sought his assent before nominating Gujarat chief ministerNarendra Modi as NDA’s prime ministerial candidate. “The Sena has supported Modi because we think he is the only leader who can take the nation forward.” The Congress and the NCP should be thrown out of power, he said. “There will be utter chaos in the country if the UPA returns to office in the next election.”
Uddhav also slammed NCP chief Sharad Pawar for giving a clean chit to Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004. “Does Pawar know more about Ishrat than David Headley?”
