Chandrashekhar Bawankule, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, warned Uddhav Thackeray that if he continued to criticise Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis personally, BJP members would make it impossible for him to leave his house.
After an alleged assault on a Shiv Sena worker in neighbouring Thane city, former CM Thackeray, who now holds the home portfolio, called Fadnavis “worthless” in a blistering attack on Tuesday.
Addressing to reporters at this location, Bawankule advised the Opposition leader, a former ally of the BJP, to stop criticising Fadnavis personally.
“Uddhav Thackeray was pardoned for attacking our leader Devendra Fadnavis personally, but we won’t stand for it if he does it again. We would make it tough for him to leave his house if he launches another personal assault on Fadnavis, the former state minister said.
I challenge him to criticise Fadnavis personally one more time, Bawankule said. Bawankule referred to the last BJP-led administration in Maharashtra (2014–19), during which Fadnavis served as chief minister and shared power with the unbroken Shiv Sena. He said that his partymate always showed Thackeray respect and attended to his complaints.
“Fadnavis (as CM) gave Thackeray maximum attention and committed to do whatever tasks Thackeray requested of him. Even better, Fadnavis would meet with him at his home in the Bandra neighbourhood of Mumbai to discuss his requests. How did Thackeray lose his gratitude towards him? questioned the BJP leader in the state.
In response to a query, Bawankule ruled out the prospect of a coalition between the BJP and the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena fraction.
The BJP camp is not for those who betrayed us. According to Bawankule, whose party is aligned with the Shiv Sena headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, “We would not create an alliance with them.”
In 2019, Thackeray was appointed chief minister of the state after the undivided Shiv Sena’s withdrawal from the saffron coalition and the formation of a coalition with the NCP and the Congress.