Tejasvi Surya attacks Aaditya Thackeray, says Maharashtra has rejected dynastic politics

Mumbai: Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)’s youth wing leader and MP Tejasvi Surya on Friday said Maharashtra has rejected dynastic politics and this will be clearly seen in Mumbai in the coming days, in an apparent dig at Aaditya Thackeray, a prominent leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena.

Talking to reporters in Worli, the Assembly constituency in Mumbai represented by Aaditya Thackeray, the head of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party had to pay a “very hefty price” for “betraying” the legacy of its founder Bal Thackeray.

He was referring to the collapse of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, headed by then-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in Maharashtra in June.

Aaditya Thackeray, the son of Uddhav Thackeray, was a minister in the three-party MVA government.

The Lok Sabha member said the BJP has demolished many fortresses in the past and it will get a full majority in the upcoming elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and this will be a “reality”. The Shiv Sena had controlled the country’s richest civic body for the last 25 years.

“In Maharashtra, in the last two to three years (when three-party MVA was in power), Balasaheb views of Hindutva were left behind and one faction of the Shiv Sena got immersed in corruption, appeasement politics and dynasty politics for its opportunistic politics. “Be it Bihar, Madhya Pradesh or Maharashtra, today the youth has rejected dynastic politics, corruption and appeasement politics. In coming days, you will see it clearly in Mumbai,” he said while announcing the formation of ‘Yuva warriors’ in the civic ward number 196 in Worli.

Surya said people can approach ‘Yuva warriors’ in case of any problem — be it related to water, education, basic infrastructure — as they are just a phone call away.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave later in the day, Surya attacked the Congress, dubbing it as an “endangered species” which is on its way to ”extinction”.

The Member of Parliament from Bengaluru South said the Congress hopes that Karnataka, where Assembly polls are due in the first half of 2023, can be its last shot at survival.

“The Bharat Jodo Yatra was a non-starter in Karnataka. Rahul Gandhi (leading the yatra) spent 20 days in Karnataka. We have always seen, where he goes, whichever state he spends more time on, we have seen the proportionate corresponding decline of the Congress there,” he said. Surya said the Congress has run a very ”distasteful campaign” in the BJP-ruled state. The Congress party has been vociferous in its attack on the BJP government in Karnataka, accusing it of corruption. Surya said the Congress should not make corruption charges in the media, public meetings and instead approach the police and courts. The time for ”hit and run politics and spit and scoot politics” is over.

The BJP MP claimed not a single piece of evidence has been forthcoming other than baseless and malicious allegations.

Hitting back, Dinesh Gundurao, the Congress in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Goa, alleged corruption in ”sky rocketing” in Karnataka.

Gundurao and Surya were part of a panel at the India Today conclave. Defending the Bharat Jodo Yatra led Rahul Gandhi, Gundurao said the mass contact programme was not based on a state election and it was a drive that covers Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

“Bharat Jodo Yatra is a tremendous success,” he said. Gundurao accused the BJP of using central probe agencies to harass its political rivals.