‘Me’ replaced ‘we’: Uddhav admits MVA was divided during state polls

Thackeray also says country is heading towards ‘one party, no election’ system, in Saamana interview

- Surendra P Gangan

Infighting among the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties and attempts to score over one another led to the alliance’s crushing defeat in last year’s assembly elections that ‘saw the ruling Mahayuti coalition return to power with a thumping majority, according to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray.

In an interview to his party's mouthpiece Saamana published on Saturday, Thackeray said that the MVA’s success during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections had gone to their heads, and the parties—Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)—were fighting for their own victory rather than the alliance.

The interview, published two days after Thackeray's brief, closed-door meeting with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, is likely to irk his party’s allies, especially the Congress. The grand old party is anyway reconsidering its tie-up with the Shiv Sena (UBT) if Uddhav and his cousin, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, form an alliance for the upcoming civic polls.

However, Thackeray also slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government in the interview, saying the country is heading towards a “one party, no election” system due to the autocratic regime in Delhi.

MVA's mistakes

In the first part of his interview with Samana’s executive editor and party MP Sanjay Raut published on Saturday, Thackeray said that some defeats and the mistakes made in the assembly polls should be accepted with responsibility.