Mahayuti has a face that is corrupt...Need a trustworthy person: Thackeray

Without a face, INDIA's Lok Sabha tally was 237; the BJP's tally came down to 240. Had there been a face, we could have crossed that, said Aaditya Thackeray

Aaditya Thackeray, the 34-year-old MLA from Mumbai’s Worli Assembly constituency, tells Aditi Phadnis the Shiv Sena, then led by his father Uddhav Thackeray, was victim of political treachery and voters know the constructive work the previous Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government did. Edited excerpts from an interview at Matoshree, the bungalow of the Thackeray-family in Mumbai:

You back all the right causes: Solutions to climate change, environment protection, and women’s rights, but you don’t speak on bureaucratic and political corruption in Maharashtra. You don’t say anything on extortion…

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My general outlook on politics is: This is a field where you can make maximum impact.

There are two ways of making an impact -- you get TRPs, you finger point at each other, you do mudslinging, and then you become famous because of mudslinging.

The other is what I’ve learnt from my father — focus on a goal and work towards it silently. If you see our work on tactical urbanism, on environment, even on attracting industry to Maharashtra, the two and a half years of our government – much of it engulfed in fighting Covid – saw zero social unrest. There were no caste or religion battles.

You’ve brought the Shiv Sena into universities and colleges. There have been unexpected gains for the Sena in the farm sector in some areas. But your traditional urban Maharashtrian voter is drifting away from you…

The Sena was there in universities even earlier but we gave it the outlook of the Yuva Sena and we involved college students… In the past two and a half years, it may look like that (urban Maharashtrian voters are drifting away) because elections to the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) haven’t taken place.

If you look at the demography of Mumbai, we have our core voters that’s why we’ve been winning our traditional seats, and we’ve added on new voters.

Farmers have supported us in large numbers because when we were in government, the loan waiver and the timely help when there was any calamity helped us build credibility. Among women, there is a sense that Uddhav Thackeray is a man they can trust.

And because we didn’t indulge in the politics that the BJP does traditionally -- hate politics and politics of religion -- many other religions and communities have joined us.

You grew up in an era when the Sena and the BJP were friends. Now you must feel a bit like Arjun in the Mahabharata?

I used to sit in when my grandfather and father used to hold meetings. In the first 24 years of my life, I’ve only seen the era of the Sena-BJP alliance. But the BJP we knew back then was different. It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee saab’s BJP and L K Advani saab’s BJP. Even in Maharashtra, (there were) (Gopinath) Munde kaka and (Pramod) Mahajan kaka – they used to come home. Not that there weren’t fights between us then, because obviously when you’re from different parties working in constituencies you will have kheena-chataani (tug of war). But everyone knew how much to stretch and when to release.

What happened in 2014 was a shock for us. I believe the BJP thought that after my grandfather, the party wouldn’t exist and they could swallow up the Shiv Sena. And in 2014, two days before the date of withdrawal of candidates, the BJP just called and said: “We’re going to break the alliance”, no reasons given. They blamed me. I was just 24 years old then, yet they blamed me.

That was a huge shock for us. We had trusted the BJP blindly. We had 63 seats but we got back with them. Even then you had people from the old BJP – Rajnath Singhji, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley… Arunji rang up and said: Don’t worry, main dekh loonga (I’ll take care of it). We trusted them for another five years. We had differences but we never threatened to pull out.

Again in 2019, the word they gave in my grandfather’s room was broken by them. So how many more times do you trust them? And how much do you remain attached to a person who is betraying you again and again?

You are now with new partners. But you’re insisting that the new partners declare a chief minister’s face before the election.

We have said there should be a face that leads us into Assembly elections. He/she doesn’t have to be from our party, he/she could be anyone. That Mahayuti today has a face (Eknath Sinde) that is corrupt -- has a face of treachery and has a face nobody can trust. We need to have a face that people can trust.

Look at the INDIA bloc’s performance. Without a face, INDIA’s Lok Sabha tally was 237; the BJP’s tally came down to 240. Had there been a face, we could have crossed that. And the kind of work Rahul Gandhi is doing as the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, I think that has given a new confidence to people. That is our argument.

What is your assessment of the governance in Maharashtra?

It has been made a mess by the BJP.

I think it has been a mess a bit longer than that and you were part of the BJP government…

We pointed all this out even then. Frankly, in every sector, they (the BJP) have ensured that Maharashtra regressed.

It is not that Maharashtra and Gujarat are fighting. It is because the Union government of the BJP is ensuring that Gujarat becomes a rival to every other state in an unfair way. Why are we facing the brunt of the BJP hating Maharashtra?

Farmer suicide is on the rise. Every time there has been some calamity the BJP says: ‘yes, yes, we’ll help’. What do the farmers get? Cheques for Rs 5 and Rs 10. They don’t expect to get crores or lakhs. They’re just saying: ‘give us respect, give us confidence, stand with us’. The loan waiver – started by our government- was completed as a process in two months’ time. It was done on the basis of one finger and one Aadhaar card. Whereas what these people had announced is still not completed.

If you look at the public examination sector, the students have to go and protest in Poona for three or four days, stay in the rain: why? Because the Maharashtra Public Services Commission (MPSC) and the  Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) exam is on the same day. Law and order has collapsed totally. The Badlapur incident is so, so terrible.

An Assistant Police Inspector was attacked by a gang in Poona. Where is the fear of law? What has happened to those who are involved in hit and run cases?

If you’ve toppled a government, if you’ve done treachery with us, at least have the shame to bring good industries to our state. Today for 17,000 vacancies of police constables, we have 18 lakh young people applying. For 650 Air India posts, 25,000 people came down.

And what is the chief minister involved in? Breaking parties.

In my view the current government is illegal and unconstitutional and with the backing of the BJP. But at least work for the people.