We thank nationalists from all communities who voted for us: Uddhav

On Shiv Senarsquos foundation day soon after the Lok Sabha election Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray acknowledged his new voter base comprising Marathi speakersHindus minorities and scheduled caste communitiesldquoThey claim Shiv Sena has won on the votes of Muslims Yes we have We have won on the votes of all nationalists This includes the Marathi manoos Muslims Hindus Sikhs Dalits Buddhists and Christians I thank them allrdquo Thackeray saidThis year marks the 58th anniversary of Shiv Senarsquos formation The celebrations by the UBT faction at Shanmukhananda hall in Matunga were attended by some longtime party workersldquoI have been with Shiv Sena since its formation Unlike the traitors we are the real Shiv Sainiks who stand by the decisions taken by our paksha pramukhrdquo said 68yearold Prabhadevi resident Satish GolatkarFor those like him the annual function on June 19 signals the direction of the party ldquoThis is when our party chief hints at what we at the ground level should be doingrdquo said Gorakhnath Pawar who has been with Sena UBT shaka for the past 30 yearsThere were cheers when Thackeray said ldquoThe BJP has started spreading rumours that Uddhav will join the NDA again Those who tried to destroy Shiv Sena there is no going back to themrdquoHowever the response from the crowd was not as resounding when Thackeray defended his stand on Hindutva ldquoWe do not accept Gaumutra Hindutva We do not accept Hindutva of thread Our Hindutva is about taking everybody forwardrdquoThe Shiv Sainiks responded well to every attack against the NDA ldquoI am of the opinion that this government will not last I declare that it has to fallrdquo Thackeray said after which the auditorium erupted with whistles and clapsInterestingly he invoked the names of YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and senior journalists like Ravish Kumar and Nikhil Wagle ldquoAll of them have helped us win and we thank themrdquo he saidFurthermore Thackeray criticised the BJPrsquos decision to involve Bhupendra Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw in overseeing the partyrsquos preparations for the state Assembly poll He said ldquoThey have proved incompetent as ministers and now they have been handed over duties of Maharashtra If ministers are told to do party work who will run the governmentrdquo Towards the end of his speech he pointed at the pending decision of the Supreme Court on the disqualification of rebel Sena MLAs ldquoHow long will the Supreme Court take to decide We request the court to give out the verdict at the earliest This tarikh pe tarikh will no longer workrdquoThere were also signals by Thackeray and his party leader Sanjay Raut about not letting go of Amol Kirtikarrsquos electoral loss ldquoWe will fight again for Amol Kirtikarrsquos seat Similarly BJP stole about 100 seats across the country where the margin was just a few hundred votesrdquo Raut allegedThe party chief and his aide shared the stage with Aaditya Thackeray all elected MPs and all those including Kirtikar who lost their Lok Sabha seat