Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday took a sharp jibe at Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, likening his speech at the Marathi ‘victory’ rally in Mumbai alongside Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief and cousin Raj Thackeray to that of a ‘rudali,’ a professional mourner.
He also countered Raj Thackeray for sarcastically crediting him for reuniting the Thackeray cousins after nearly 20 years, thanking him and saying that he must have received the blessings of Balasaheb Thackeray.
“I express my gratitude to Raj Thackeray that he gave me the credit for the coming together of both the brothers. I must be getting the blessings of Balasaheb Thackeray. I was told that there would be a victory rally, but there was also a speech of ‘rudaali’. Not a single word was spoken about Marathi,” the Maharashtra CM said.
The term “rudali” refers to women hired to mourn publicly at funerals in parts of Rajasthan.
Fadnavis’ remarks came after Raj Thackeray, during the joint rally, credited Fadnavis in a lighter vein for doing what their uncle, Bal Thackeray, could not, i.e., uniting the cousins.
The Thackeray cousins shared the public stage at a ‘victory’ rally in Mumbai to celebrate the rollback of two GRs (government orders) issued earlier by the state government to introduce Hindi as a third language from class 1 in schools.
The BJP leader dismissed the rally as political mourning rather than a celebratory event, as he took a dig at Uddhav’s address, highlighting that it was just focused on how his government was toppled and how they could regain power in the state.
“We changed the face of Mumbai under the leadership of PM Modi. They are jealous of the work we did for Mumbai, but the public knows everything, and everyone is on our side. We are Marathi, we are proud of being Marathi, we are proud of the Marathi language, but at the same time, we are also Hindus, our Hindutva takes everyone along,” Fadnavis said.
He also accused the Shiv Sena (UBTs) of failing to bring in any development despite ruling the Mumbai civic body for 25 years.
Doonited Affiliated: Syndicate News Hunt
This report has been published as part of an auto-generated syndicated wire feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been modified or edited by Doonited
