Shoot-at-sight for forest-grabbers like leopards? Uddhav's roar before BMC polls

As campaigning for the Mumbai civic polls drew to a close on Tuesday, Uddhav Thackeray, citing Maharashtra Forest Minister Ganesh Naik’s recent "shoot at sight" order for man-eater leopards, questioned whether the same directive would be applied to industrialists destroying forests.

"To control the menace caused by leopards, Forest Minister Ganesh Naik recently ordered 'shoot at sight'. But what about those who are grabbing forest land? Will he also order 'shoot at sight' for such industrialists who are intruding into forests?" Uddhav asked.

Further, Uddhav declared his former political ally "dead," saying that while it was once "Rashtra Pratham" for the BJP, it has now become "Chor and corruption Pratham."

Taking a sarcastic dig at the ruling BJP government in Maharashtra, Uddhav alleged that the Opposition’s voice was being stifled and compared it to a "cough."

"Cough is the main issue of this election. This is due to massive pollution in the atmosphere as well as in Maharashtra’s politics. They want to suppress our voice. We will not let them do so," he said.

Claiming that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis does not understand Mumbai, Uddhav further said that his government had left Rs 92,000 crore in fixed deposits with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has now come down to Rs 70,000 crore.

"We had Rs 92,000 crore in fixed deposits with the Mumbai BMC during our tenure. They broke the FDs and brought it down to Rs 70,000 crore. Now an additional debt burden of Rs 3 lakh crore has been added to the corporation," he said.

"The Central government always used to keep Rs 25,000 crore of our taxes pending. They want us to beg in front of them," he added.

Uddhav also declared that the Mayor of Mumbai and Thane will only be Marathi.

"They say it will be Hindu, why? They don't consider Maharashtrians as Hindus? We are Nationalist first and then we are Gujaratis in Gujarat, Tamilians in Tamil Nadu," he added.

He said that the election was not about the Thackeray brothers and that the entire struggle was for the people, to whom he was answerable.

He added that he was waiting for Minister of Forests of Maharashtra Ganesh Naik to challenge Eknath Shinde, alleging that Shinde would be used and discarded by the BJP.

He described the BJP as a "monster" that would eventually swallow everyone.

He further claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who would not have risen without Balasaheb Thackeray’s support, later tried to finish off Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena, calling this reflective of the party’s character.

- Ends