Uddhav stirs poll pitch with subsidized meals, health check-up and call to evict illegal Bangladeshi immigrants

Mumbai: Mixing hardline and soft-line approach, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday in a bid to woo the electorate announced that the Sena after coming to power shall give subsidized meals at Rs 10 per thali, Rs 1 health check-up, slashing electricity bills by 30 percent for 300 units and ST school bus service especially for girl students in rural Maharashtra. Declaring his open support for National Register of Citizens of India (NRC), Thackeray said that it was also the dream of his late father, late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray to drive out the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

While announcing the Rs 10 thali, the Sena president invoked the memories of the Rs 1 Zunka Bhakar scheme that was launched by the Sena when it was in power in the state between 1995-99. On the other hand the Rs 1 health check-up for ailments like diabetes, heart check-ups, looks more on the lines of the Rs 1 clinic that was in vogue on the Central Railway. On the issue of the ST school buses in villages, he referred to the recent sexual assault on a girl student which he said prompted him to assure protection to women.

Addressing the traditional annual Dussehra rally (53rd) at Shivaji Park, Dadar, Thackeray while lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his bold decision to scrap Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, he said it was also the dream of late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray that J&K should be fully integrated with the rest of the country and had also dreamt of construction of the Lord Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Alluding to US president Donald Trump’s pitch for jobs to local youth, he said that the world is now acknowledging the sons-of-the-soil cause espoused by the late Sena chief 50 years ago. Taking a sarcastic jibe at the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) poll manifesto promise of 80 percent reservation in jobs for local youths, Thackeray remarked that the Congress-NCP have now realized that after they themselves becoming jobless.

Taking the cue from senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde’s remarks earlier in the day of leaders in both the Congress and NCP feeling tired due to old age and time for re-merger of the two Congress factions, Thackeray took yet another sarcastic jibe at the Congress and NCP remarking that the two Congress factions are probably feeling tired of having eaten so much in the last 25-30 years that they were in power. He further wanted to know as to whose leadership would the Congress factions accept, that of Sonia Gandhi or Sharad Pawar who had quit the Congress over the alleged foreign origins of the Congress president.

Commenting upon senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar getting emotional over the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe, the Sena president while terming it as crocodile tears, stated that the NCP leaders tears were re-payment of his remarks when farmers came to him to ask for water for their fields. The reference was to Ajit Pawar had told his son Parth Pawar to give up on politics and think of agriculture. Thackeray remarked that even for doing agriculture, one needs water and then went on to remind the NCP leader of how he while in power had angrily retorted to farmers who came to seek water arguing that if there was no water in the dams then should he pee in the dams to fill them up.

Lashing out at NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s un-invited visit to the ED office and Ajit Pawar’s allegation that the government was indulging in vendetta politics, Thackeray sought to remind the NCP leader’s that when they were in power in 2000, they had dug up an old case of a Saamana editorial penned by the late Sena chief during the 1992-93 communal riots and had tried to do a technical arrest of the late Sena chief. He said that more than a fortnight Sharad Pawar who was the Chief Minister then and Chhagan Bhujbal who was the deputy chief minister had tormented Maharashtra. He claimed that even the courts had then rejected the case against the Sena chief. Thackeray added that those same people are now complaining of vendetta.

Earlier, justifying his decision to strike a pre-poll alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Sena president stated that the Sena has always stayed true to its assurances and promises and has never been the one to back-stab anyone. Referring to the impending Supreme Court verdict on Lord Ram temple at Ayodhya, he once again reiterated the Sena demand that the government should enact a special legislation paving the way for the construction of Ram temple at the disputed site. The Sena president ruled out supporting the Congress, NCP alliance and ushering in once again an unstable government. He added that till the Congress, NCP keep on targeting the Sena, he too will keep on targeting them.