Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar on Thursday launched a series of attacks on Maharashtra's former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for his new Hindutva policy and questioned his silence on the gruesome murder of Shraddha Walkar.
"Thackeray has divided Hindus by bringing the concept of a new Hindu. Why did he say that he supports Marathi Muslims? What problems does he have with Jain, Gujarati and North Indian? Is it just to get Muslim votes?." Ashish Shelar questioned Uddhav Thackeray during a public rally in Mumbai ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
BJP leader was addressing 16th Jagar (Wake Up) rally near the Saamna (Shiv Sena's mouthpiece) office at Mumbai's Prabha Devi.
Ashish Shelar also racked up Uddhav Thackeray's silence on the Shraddha Murder case. "A Mumbai girl was murdered by Aftab and chopped into pieces but Uddhav said nothing about it," Mr Shelar said, adding that "on December 23, 2020, during MVA government in Maharashtra Shraddha walkar wrote a letter to Mumbai Police that Aftab is threatening to kill her, but this letter was not taken seriously by the police and the Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil and the Chief Minister didn't even intervene in this serious issue."
"I want to question him why the police settled this case on the table itself. Was the police pressurised or is it because she was Walkar and he was Aftab?" he added.
Mr Shelar also mocked Aditya Thackeray's recent Bihar visit. "Didn't Aditya meet Tejashwi Yadav to know how Lalu ate all the 'chara' (folder scam)?" Shelar said. "They (Tejashwi Yadav and Aditya Thackeray both) are well known for eating (indulging in corruption)," he added.
"Uddhav ji didn't even welcome the court order on the Gyanvapi issue and 'Saamna' in his earlier editorial, published on October 22 maintained that the Uddhav faction Shiv Sena is with Marathi Muslims. So now to have votes in the BMC election they are with Muslims," Ashish Shelar said further.
BJP has been organising the Jagar (Wake Up) rally in Mumbai ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election. This is the second phase of the campaign and a few months back Poll Khol yatra in Mumbai was organised by the BJP to highlight corruption in BMC and to expose Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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