Uddhav Thackeray accused the BJP of destroying democracy with the help of democratic institutions.
Mumbai:
Uddhav Thackeray today said the Election Commission should be “disbanded” and election commissioners should be elected by the people, two days after losing the name and symbol of Shiv Sena, the party founded by his father Bal Thackeray.
Hours after challenging the Election Commission’s decision in the Supreme Court, the former Maharashtra chief minister said, “There is not a single instance where the party name and election symbol have been directly given to a faction.”
“What was the need to pass this decision in such a hurry?” he questioned.
“I want to ask you why are you all here? I have nothing, everything has been stolen from me, why are you still here? Even though the other faction has taken our name and symbol, they do not Can take our Thackeray name. I was lucky to be born in Balasaheb Thackeray’s family. They can’t get it even with the help of Delhi,” Mr Thackeray told reporters.
He accused the BJP of destroying democracy with the help of democratic institutions. He said he had received calls in support of Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Nitish Kumar “and many others”.
“What the BJP did to us today, it can do to anyone. If this continues, there will be no democracy or elections in the country after 2024,” he said.
Mr Thackeray also said he never abandoned Hindutva, although he was accused of doing so when he ended his decades-long alliance with the BJP in 2019.
“I never left Hindutva, whoever is a Hindu should speak now.”
Mr Thackeray said the Election Commission should have waited for the Supreme Court’s decision on the disqualification of the MLAs.
In Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition lost power following a coup in the Shiv Sena by Eknath Shinde, who formed a new government with the BJP in June.
Since then, factions led by Mr Thackeray and Eknath Shinde have been fighting for recognition as the “real Shiv Sena”.
The Supreme Court is hearing petitions questioning the foundation of the Shinde government after Mr Shinde and 15 other rebels were disqualified.
The Election Commission said the Shinde faction has the support of two-thirds of the members, as required by the anti-defection law.
“The question is whether two-thirds of the MLAs went together? The answer is no. They went one by one. First 16 MLAs went and then others,” he said.
Mr Thackeray said that during the recent bypolls in Andheri, his party’s candidate had used a name given by the Election Commission. He said, “We used Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and we won the elections. At that time Shinde did not even have the courage to contest elections.”
He said, “During Indira Gandhi’s time there was syndicate and syndicate. At that time also they (Congress) were given new symbols before getting the symbol of hand. Mulayam Singh Yadav never went to court, so Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav There is not a single instance where it was given directly to a group.”