Aaditya Thackeray said that they are going to Ayodhya for 'darshan'. (File)
Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray took a dig at his uncle Raj Thackeray's party this morning when has was asked a political question at an event to launch Mumbai's first waste-to-energy electric vehicle charging point.
While speaking to the media, Mr. Thackeray was asked about political leaders needing a 'Hindutva' charging point with Maharashtra politicians making trips to Ayodhya where the Ram Temple is being built. In response, he said, "Those who are already charged don't need a charging point. Those who need to revive themselves need a charging point. I will not talk about that though now. On the 14th, the Chief Minister (Uddhav Thackeray) will talk about it."
"We are going to Ayodhya for 'darshan'. The battle (sangharsh) there is over. A temple is being built because of a court order," Mr. Thackeray added.
The Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, an offshoot of the Shiv Sena, formed by the Chief Minister's estranged cousin Raj Thackeray, are locked in a poster war over their parties' leaders visits to Ayodhya. Responding to a question on that, Aaditya Thackeray said, "I am only going for darshan and I don't want to comment on it."
Earlier, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS had put up hoardings in Ayodhya with the photos of Raj Thackeray saying - 'Raj Tilak Ki Karo Taiyari, Aa Rahe Hain Bhagwadhari'. In response, the Shiv Sena's also put-up posters with the slogan 'Asli Aa Raha Hai, Nakli Se Savdhan' (the real ones are coming, beware of fakes), along with pictures of Aaditya Thackeray, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, and Sena patriarch, Bal Thackeray.
The local administration removed the posters on Saturday evening.
Mr. Thackeray inaugurated Mumbai's first waste-to-energy charging point for electric vehicles this morning. Talking about the charging point, Mr. Thackeray said, "It's a very important moment for us on the history of decarbonisation of transport. Maharashtra has taken the lead in terms of electric mobility. We are looking at a lot of public transport and private transport moving towards electric mobility especially with the rising fuel prices. Today, what is very crucial is we are looking at waste to energy plant which is which we inaugurated a couple of months ago and now from that same energy, which is clean, which is biomass, it is coming into these electric vehicles. I think it's a huge leap of faith for us and moving towards electric mobility."
Ankit Zaveri, who's company has implemented the project told NDTV, "Aerocare Clean Energy's mandate is to push climate change projects across the board. Six months ago, we started first decentralised bio-methanation plant with a two tonne capacity a day. We have been operational for six months now and produce around 300 units of electricity on a daily basis."
He added that the EV charging infrastructure that needs to be built has to have an alternative fuel component to it. "Now we have set up an EV charging station that is directly powered by the biogas that is generated at the processing centre. We get about 300 units of electricity which means around 7-8 cars can be charged using biogas itself," Mr Zaveri said.