By Ritvick Arun Bhalekar: Eknath Shinde cried and said he would be put in jail if he didn’t join the BJP, former Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said at the Mumbai Tak Baithaak.

“Eknath Shinde cried in front of us, saying let me join the BJP or else I will be put behind bars. This is not my age not to go to jail,” Aaditya Thackeray claimed.

“When Uddhav Thackeray underwent surgery and was going through a rough patch, Eknath Shinde conspired to break the party by luring our MLAs,” he said.

Aaditya Thackeray claimed that a few MLAs informed that Eknath Shinde was frequently missing and going to his farmhouse. “They said his phone was not reachable. The MLAs said he was giving money to several legislators and that there should be a check on him to see if he was visiting Delhi or Ahmedabad,” he said.

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“If Eknath Shinde says that his autorickshaws have overtaken Mercedes, then I need to ask why he left our autorickshaw government of three wheels. Also, it is good that he says that he is an autorickshaw driver. But unfortunately, he is the one who has no roads in his village but two helipads for himself,” he said.

The Maharashtra BJP has all imported leaders right now, Aaditya Thackeray said, adding, “I don’t see old BJP leaders who gave their sweat and blood for the party.”

“Earlier, the relationships of different political parties had grace and decency. However, we have lost that culture in politics in recent times. Had I not entered active politics, how would everyone know the potential of the kind of work we did during the Covid crisis by handling administration?” Aaditya Thackeray said.

Training his guns on the BJP on the issue of Hindutva, he said: “Our Hindutva is not violent. We don’t cut cows and ignite riots for the sake of politics, like the recently reported incident in Uttar Pradesh. We all know who is using violent Hindutva for electoral politics.”

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