Uddhav Says Dictatorship at India's Doorstep

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday urged people to protect India’s freedom by voting ‘wisely’ in the 2024 general elections. “Dictatorship has reached the nation’s doorstep and saving India’s freedom was the need of the hour,” he said on Monday.

Addressing a Jain community event, Thackeray urged people not to make any mistakes in the upcoming general polls. “The country is going through a tough time. Who will save the country? If we make a mistake this time, there will be dictatorship in the country,” he said.

“The country needs freedom. There was a time when we fought for freedom, and now we have to fight to keep this freedom. There is an environment of confusion in the country. Dictatorship has come to our doorstep. We have to stop it,” Thackeray added.

The former Maharashtra Chief Minister has been targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of snatching industries and businesses from Maharashtra to Gujarat.

“The business activity here (in Maharashtra) is now being taken to Gujarat to strengthen that state. If he (Modi) wants to make Gujarat stronger, he can do it, but not by snatching our businesses," Thackeray had said on Sunday in Mira-Bhayandar.

Thackeray is likely to sound a poll bugle by holding a convention and a public rally in Nashik on January 23, the birth anniversary of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.

The (then undivided) Shiv Sena contested the Nashik Lok Sabha election in alliance with the BJP and won the seat in 2014 and 2019. Later, two-time MP Hemant Godse switched over to the Shiv Sena camp led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

In June 2022, Shinde and 40 other MLAs revolted against the Shiv Sena leadership, leading to a split in the party and collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Shinde then joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government in the state.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party is now part of the MVA which includes the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.