Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is campaigning with an aim to win more than 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it wants to "change the Constitution".
Addressing a rally at Guhagar in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, the former state chief minister also claimed that the "one nation one election" concept was a move towards dictatorship.
"Understand the strategy of the BJP...they want more than 400 seats (out of 543 in the Lok Sabha) because they don't want opposing voices when they go ahead with their plan of changing the Constitution," he said.
"Recently more than 100 MPs were suspended from Parliament during which several important bills were passed without debate," he added.
Notably, BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde last week said his party needed a two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”.
The BJP later moved to defuse the row sparked by Hegde's remarks as it dubbed it as his "personal opinion" and sought a clarification from him.
Thackeray claimed the present day BJP is a far cry from the times of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and party veteran L K Advani.
Referring to the rebellion in the Shiv Sena in 2022 resulting in its split, Thackeray said he was never keen to become the chief minister but accepted the post under "exceptional circumstances".
"Even if I did, I was working for the welfare of Maharashtra. I gave you ministerial posts and made you members of the legislature and you betray me in this manner," he said without naming anyone.
"Elsewhere in the country, the head of a political party becomes chief minister. Just because of that you betray me," the former CM said.
He said even as the Shiv Sena has split and he has been "robbed" of its (bow and arrow) symbol, Shiv Sainiks loyal to him from every constituency have been telling him that there are good candidates and "we have chance of winning".
Thackeray said his opponents were trying hard to finish him off politically, but he is standing firm because of the love of his sainiks.
He claimed the BJP has started "bhrashtachari abhay yojana" (amnesty scheme for corrupt) and it is "Modi guarantee".
"You make allegations against our people, force them to join you and then the investigations are stopped. Till recently, the one whom I used to proudly call as a loyalist also switched over," Thackeray said without naming his close aide Ravindra Waikar who recently joined the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Waikar, the MLA from Mumbai's Jogeshwari area, is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged misuse of a civic plot to build a luxury hotel.
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