Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday accused Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray of practising the politics of “dhokha” (treachery) and “vishwasghat” (betrayal), appearing to strike at the two Opposition leaders’ efforts to cosy up to Maharashtra’s BJP chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

“Dhokha aur vishwasghat ki rajniti jisne shuru kiya woh Sharad Pawar ko aur antim dhokha jisne diya woh Uddhav Thackerayji, dono ko ghar par bithane ka kaam Maharashtra ki janta ne kiya hai,” Shah told a party convention in Shirdi, Maharashtra.

A rough translation: “Sharad Pawar, who started the politics of treachery and betrayal, and Uddhav Thackeray, who committed the last betrayal, have been shown their places by the people of Maharashtra.”

Shah’s offensive comes days after the Opposition factions of the Shiv Sena and the NCP heaped praises on Fadnavis, appearing to make overtures to the BJP following their disastrous performance in the Assembly polls.

Party insiders said Shah’s relations with Fadnavis had never been very good and he probably saw him as a potential rival following his return as chief minister after leading the party to a stunning election victory in Maharashtra last month.

In a recent editorial in mouthpiece Saamana, Uddhav’s party had “congratulated” Fadnavis for visiting Maoist-infested Gadchiroli on the first day of the new year and promising to turn the area into a “steel city”.

Pawar’s daughter and his NCP faction’s working president, Supriya Sule, too lauded Fadnavis as a proactive leader. Pawar followed it up by extolling RSS cadres’ sense of commitment.

Fadnavis appeared to return the compliment on Saturday by saying “anything can happen in politics” and appearing to keep open the possibility of yet another political realignment in the state.

“Sometimes, we have to praise our competitors, so he (Pawar) may have done it. After the political developments of 2019 and 2024, I realised one thing: never say never,” Fadnavis, the BJP’s tallest leader in the state and an RSS favourite, said.

“Never think that nothing will happen. Anything can happen in politics,” Fadnavis said.

But on Sunday, Shah seemed unimpressed by the friendly advances from Pawar and Uddhav.

“This grand victory in Maharashtra has several meanings. This mandate has buried 20 feet under the ground the politics of treachery started by Sharad Pawar in 1978,”Shah said.

In 1978, Pawar had walked out of Vasantdada Patil’s Congress-U government in Maharashtra with 40 MLAs and become chief minister himself. Two decades later, he left the Congress and formed the NCP.

Shah said Uddhav had received his comeuppance for the way he had betrayed the BJP in 2019, dumping it after contesting the Assembly polls as its ally.

He claimed the people had endorsed the Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde as the “real Sena of Balasaheb Thackeray” and the NCP faction led by Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar as the “real NCP”. Shinde and Ajit are BJP allies.

Shah’s attack on Pawar comes at a time lobbies within the two NCP factions are trying for a reunion, with an open call for a merger sounded by Sule’s aunt and Ajit’s mother Ashatai Pawar on January 1.

The home minister exhorted the cadres to ensure a bigger BJP victory in the upcoming local body polls, saying the party should become so powerful in Maharashtra that no one would dare betray it.

He acknowledged that the win in Maharashtra had come as a huge relief for the Narendra Modi government after the Lok Sabha polls denied the BJP a majority.

Shah said the Maharashtra mandate had put “national politics back on track” and dealt a blow to the INDIA bloc.

“All our opponents sat with folded hands thinking ‘We will win in Maharashtra after the Lok Sabha elections’. You all have shattered their dreams,” he said.

He mocked the disunity in the Opposition camp.

“Uddhav Thackerayji’s Sena has declared it will contest the local polls in Maharashtra alone. In Delhi, the AAP and the Congress are fighting (each other),” Shah said.

“In Bengal, the TMC and the Congress are fighting. And in Bihar, Lalu Yadav is getting restless…. The INDIA bloc has split apart.”