The political atmosphere heated up in Maharashtra soon after the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the schedule for the assembly polls, which will take place on November 20 in a single phase.
Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and its rival faction led by Uddhav Thackeray made claims and counterclaims against each other while also asserting victory for themselves in the upcoming polls.
While CM Shinde expressed hope of winning the people’s mandate based on the work done by his government in the past 2.5 years, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aadtiya Thackeray said they would go to people’s court for “justice”.
“Voting will be held in Maharashtra on November 20, the day will decide the fate of the state. The works done by Mahayuti in the last 2.5 years are before the people to see…Maharashtra is heading towards progress. The state is number one in all services and welfare schemes. Its results will be seen in the elections. The works of Maha Vikas Afghadi and the state government will be assessed. Mayayuti will form the government with an absolute majority,” CM Eknath Shinde told news agency ANI.
Aadtiya Thackeray, who is also Uddhav Thackeray’s son, said his party would go to the people’s court to seek justice and it “didn’t happen” in court.
Thackeray was referring to the split in the party that Shinde staged in Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena in 2022, bringing down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance government, which comprised Shiv Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar‘s NCP, in Maharashtra.
Attacking the BJP, Thackeray said that the entire Maharashtra “is being run by Gujarat” for the last two years and that the upcoming assembly polls will show that “Maharashtra will be run by Maharashtra”.
“We were waiting for this for the last 2 years. Elections have been announced. We had hoped for justice from the Court but it didn’t happen. We now hope that we will get justice in the court of the people. We have been seeing the loot of Maharashtra for the last 2 years, unemployed youth are everywhere but all the industries and job opportunities are going to Gujarat,” he said.
Thackeray further added: “The entire Maharashtra knows that the state has been run by Gujarat for the last 2 years. The upcoming Assembly elections, will show that Maharashtra will be run by Maharashtra and will listen only its own voice.”
Chandrashekar Bawankule, Maharashtra’s BJP chief, also spared no words to attack the MVA, saying “public will not trust the opposition because they have lied to them”.
“BJP and Mahayuti are ready to contest the elections… If we compare the tenure of the Mahayuti government with the tenure of the Uddhav Thackeray government, I am confident that the public will like us. The public will vote for the development done for Maharashtra under the leadership of PM Modi… The opposition has no manifesto or vision. We will go among the public with a plan for all the development work to be done in the next five years. The public will not trust the opposition because they have lied to them,” said Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, whose nephew Ajit Pawar split the original NCP to join BJP-led Mahayuti, also said he will not rest until he brings Maharashtra on the “right track” regardless of his age.
Be it 84 or 90, this old man will not stop, the octogenarian politician said on Monday at Phaltan in Maharashtra’s Satara district, according to news agency PTI.
The counting of votes for the Maharashtra elections will take place on November 23.