Won’t tolerate any insult to Savarkar, Uddhav tells ally Rahul

This was Mr. Thackeray’s second rally (after the one in Khed in Ratnagiri a fortnight ago).

While lauding his ally and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for asking tough questions to the BJP on industrialist Gautam Adani, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray nonetheless sharply upbraided Mr. Gandhi over the latter’s remarks on Hindutva ideologue V.D Savarkar, remarking that the Sena (UBT) regarded Savarkar as “a deity” and would “not tolerate any insult” against him.

Addressing a packed rally at Malegaon in Nashik, Mr. Thackeray, the former Chief Minister of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, said that while his Sena faction had wholeheartedly backed Mr. Gandhi’s recent Bharat Jodo Yatra, it would not tolerate any insult to their deities (V.D. Savarkar) in the ongoing fight to save democracy.

“Rahul Gandhi speaks well. The BJP has no answer to his questions about Gautam Adani. But today, I say openly to Rahul Gandhi, that while we have come together in this fight [against the BJP] to save the constitution and democracy, Savarkar is our deity we will not tolerate any insult to him,” Mr. Thackeray said, urging Mr. Gandhi not to let cracks emerge within the alliance at the time of this critical fight to save democratic freedoms.

Stating that it was impossible for an ordinary person to achieve and endure what Savarkar suffered at the hands of the British authorities at Andaman’s cellular jail during his incarceration, Mr. Thackeray, without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called upon the ‘Savarkar bhakts’ within the BJP to join him in saving the country’s freedoms from the ‘dictatorship’ that the Prime Minister and the top BJP brass were leading the country to.

Mr. Gandhi’s frequent criticisms of the controversial Vinayak Savarkar — a particularly sensitive topic in Maharashtra — had embarrassed Mr. Thackeray during the former’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in the State in November last year as well, leading to talks of schisms within the MVA.

Meanwhile, training his guns on the Eknath Shinde-led Sena and the BJP, he dared the ruling government to call for elections. He further challenged the BJP to announce whether it would fight the 2024 Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections under the leadership of current Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

“I say [to the BJP and the Shinde faction] take the elections as quickly as possible. You [CM Eknath Shinde and BJP] seek votes in PM Modi’s name I’ll seek votes in my father’s [late Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s] name,” said Mr. Thackeray, criticising CM Shinde for still taking Bal Thackeray’s name for justifying his intra-party revolt of June last year.