Uddhav Thackeray slams BJP, says Hindutva is under threat from those who used it to gain power

Accusing the BJP of maligning Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray said, "They call Mumbai police mafia, what will you call the UP police then?"

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday (October 15, 2021) launched a scathing attack on his former ally BJP, saying `Hindutva' was facing threat from those who used it to get power and the hunger for power was like "drug addiction".

In a no-holds-barred attack, Thackeray, who is also the Shiv Sena president, virtually sounded the bugle for the civic polls in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra early next year. Hindutva faced threat not from outsiders but from "neo Hindus" and "those who climbed the ladder of power" using the ideology, he said, adding they will now "adopt the British policy of divide and rule". 

"Shiv Sena needs to guard against such designs and work for the unity of Marathi people and Hindus," he said, addressing the annual dussehra rally of the party at the Shanmukhanand Hall here. Maharashtra and the Sena were being targeted because his party broke off its ties with the BJP, he said.