"THE BJP WILL SOON BE THE OPPOSITION PARTY"

Despite receiving overtures, Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray rules out any future alliance with the BJP. In a candid chat with Dhaval S. Kulkarni, Thackeray also talks about PM Modi, Hindutva, the TINA factor and Sena defectors asking to return. Edited excerpts

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On the dominant issues in Maharashtra

Leaders of the INDIA bloc are taking up issues like inflation, unemployment, deteriorating law and order and agrarian distress, while the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party are speaking on (the) Hindu-Muslim (binary), mutton and fish, Mughals and Pakistan. In short, the BJP, which will be the next opposition party, is touching on all issues except those concerning the country. 

On which way the electoral wind is blowing 

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is doing well. We are taking up issues concerning the interests of Maharashtra, whereas the BJP is anti-Maharashtra. 

On PM Narendra Modi’s overtures to the Shiv Sena (UBT) 

The PM had called us a ‘nakli (fake) Sena,’ and then ‘