Maharashtra politics is ugly, says Raj Thackeray

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray expressed his disapproval of the ugly politics in the state, highlighting that factions of the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are both in power and in opposition.

In Maharashtra, the parties which are in power are also in the opposition. Such a scenario exists only in our state, and nowhere else in the world. I have never seen such an absurd and ugly political situation. Factions of the Shiv Sena and NCP are in power and the remnants are in the opposition, he said.

Thackeray also condemned the collapse of a girder of an overbridge which was being constructed on a section of the Mumbai-Goa highway in Chiplun city on Monday. The flyover (overbridge) worth Rs 140 crore was damaged even before its construction was completed. Crores of rupees are wasted but nobody is bothered. Still, votes are sought and people too exercise the franchise, he added. The MNS chief, who had threatened to burn down the toll booths if the state government’s purported order to exempt small vehicles from paying the toll was not implemented, cited a lack of data on the number of vehicles passing through toll plazas.

Raj Thackeray made these comments while addressing a meeting in preparation for the registration of voters for the graduates and teachers constituencies' elections. He also referred to the split within the Shiv Sena last year when senior leader Eknath Shinde and a majority of MLAs rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray's leadership, with Shinde eventually aligning with the BJP and becoming Chief Minister.

Furthermore, in July of the current year, senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs defected to the Shiv Sena-BJP government after rebelling against NCP founder Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar had informed the Election Commission that a majority of MLAs supported his move.