Was a Mistake to Mix Politics with Religion: Maha CM Thackeray

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray said his party stayed with the BJP for 25 years for Hindutva but that was a mistake.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his former ally Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP Party

(Photo altered by The Quint)

Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray said his party, Shiv Sena, made a mistake to mix religion with politics and to continue its coalition with the BJP, NDTV reported. The statement, made on Tuesday, 24 December 2019 in the Maharashtra Assembly, was in response to a comment made Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP, who mocked him for his alliance with the Congress and National Congress Party (NCP).

The CM said that his party stayed with the BJP because of their common belief in Hindutva. He later questioned the BJP’s past alliances with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Ramvilas Paswan who are from “opposite ideologies”.

“You talked about the people’s mandate. But this is politics. We were probably making a mistake that we were mixing politics and religion. But at that time we forgot that even the followers of ‘dharma’ lost in gambling.”

Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister of Maharashtra

Shiv Sena teamed up with the NCP and the Congress to form a majority government in the recent Maharshtra elections, breaking their 30-year tie with the BJP.