Real anti-nationals those toppling elected governments: Priyanka Chaturvedi’s rebuttal to CM Shinde

File Photo/PTI

In a fiery response to statements made by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partners of undermining the principles of democracy and neglecting the constitutional institutions. Chaturvedi's comments came as a rebuttal to CM Shinde's recent remarks about his former boss Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray.

Shinde had said: "You (Uddhav Thackeray) backstabbed Bal Thackeray by committing dishonesty with his ideological legacy. I won't be surprised if they ally with terrorist groups like Hamas and Lashkar-e-Taiba for their own selfish motives." Shinde was addressing Dussehra rally of his faction of Shiv Sena on Tuesday, October 25, 2023.

"They know that they will lose when the elections would be there. The people of Maharashtra would make them lose," Chaturvedi asserted. She went on to criticize the BJP and some of its alliance partners. However, she stressed that the real 'anti-nationals' were those who were allegedly toppling democratically elected governments and neglecting the agencies and the Constitution.

"In a true sense, the real anti-nationals are those who are toppling the elected governments and those who are neglecting the agencies and the Constitution, and reducing the rules of democracy. And they are the BJP and their one or two alliance partners," Chaturvedi added.

The comments reflect the ongoing political tension between the ruling coalition, which includes the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit faction), and BJP, and the opposition Indian National Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) in the state of Maharashtra.

Also read: Hold elections, results would reveal who represents Sena's ideology: Wadettiwar

The Maha Vikas Aghadi government was formed after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, and it has faced its share of challenges, including power-sharing dynamics and ideological differences between the coalition partners. As elections draw closer, the political climate in Maharashtra appears to be heating up, with parties on both sides engaging in verbal sparring to assert their positions.

Early in the day, Maharashtra opposition leader and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said that Shindeis "speaking all this because of the support that Uddhav Thackeray is getting". "They should declare elections and then they will know who is original and who is a duplicate, who has the support of the public, and who has Shiv Sena's ideology." (With inputs from agencies)