Aaditya Thackeray said Uddhav Thackeray betrayed by his own people
A day after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Chief Minister of Maharashtra, his son and former minister Aaditya Thackeray said he and his father knew there were "people with monstrous ambitions" a month before the revolt.
"It is impossible to imagine that some people can do this to their own party and to their own family... to someone who has been working so well and has treated you as family. How could they go against the family, which is the party itself," Aaditya Thackeray said in an exclusive interview to NDTV.
It was not a complete shock, he claimed.
"We had a certain idea of a couple of people's ambitions and what they wanted to be and they were also offered those posts... exactly a month before this whole drama started," he said, breaking his silence on the Shiv Sena revolt that ended the coalition government led by his father.
The rebellion, in part, was driven by resentment against the power enjoyed by Aaditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut in the party, according to the rebel camp.
Responding to this, Thackeray Junior said it was sad to see people who had seen him since his childhood grow jealous at his success.
"We have given more than enough respect to everyone. If someone who you've seen from the age of 10-12 years is doing good work, being appreciated by people, and if you start getting jealous of that, instead of being happy and proud and blessing the person - that speaks a lot about moral values in humanity out there," he said.
"My father, grandfather and his father all believed that power and money come, go and come again... that is beyond one's control, but one should never lose one's reputation and respect. So, we are here to serve, and we will see how things go."
Aaditya Thackeray said his father had been very graceful in stepping down as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
"He has seen betrayals earlier. He doesn't have any real material attachment to the seat. He left Varsha when he said. He has given his resignation. That's very unlikely of any politician who loves saying I'll come back soon. He feels if we don't have the numbers, we don't have it. He said Aaditya, what doesn't belong to us...never will it be...," said the 32-year-old.
The real disadvantage, he felt, was that the Thackerays were not seen as hardcore politicians. "And probably good people do not have a place in politics in our country today," he added.
The rebel group has repeatedly accused the Thackerays of abandoning the Shiv Sena's core Hindutva while forming an alliance with the NCP and the Congress.
"The perspective of what they think Hindutva to be is very different from what Balasaheb Thackeray used to feel, what we feel. Since the MVA govt came to power, I have been to Ayodhya, the Chief Minister has been to Ayodhya twice, yet we ensured that there is no communal tension in Maharashtra... so our vision of Hindutva is different," he said.
"I don't think it's even imperative right now to, you know, answer whatever allegations they're making, because people know it is a joke people know, it is. They have no other reason than to just have their own higher ambitions and monstrous ambition. So I think even responding to the allegations are such, you know, things that they think would be a joke for us."
Aaditya Thackeray also tackled the rebels' criticism that his father had been aloof and inaccessible to his MLAs.
"From November he underwent two surgeries and he had to be bubbled out. He couldn't physically meet people for the next month, month-and-a-half. But not a single cabinet meeting was skipped by him. Not a single meeting was skipped by him. His work was going on, on WhatsApp and all the other technology that is in place."
Aaditya Thackeray declared that his father's faction of the Shiv Sena would continue to be in alliance with the Congress and the NCP.
"There's nothing about factions. It's about... a strong bond of family and trust. Today also, we had the Congress leaders calling on us and you know, committing fully that in these tough times where we've been betrayed by our own, they will stand with us and you will stand with them. We are standing for a country that is facing a danger to democracy and a danger to the Constitution of India," he said.
Would the Thackerays never tie up with the BJP again? "The point is right now, they're having an alliance, an unholy alliance, with some people who have betrayed us. Good luck to them."