By IANS,
Mumbai: Expressing anguish over his party’s poll defeat, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has accused Maharashtrians of betrayal in the assembly elections. “Where did we go wrong? What were our crimes? Who did we harm? We are really shocked…” he has said.
Continuing to express his pain for the second consecutive day in the party newspaper Saamna, Thackeray said in an editorial that despite working for 44 years in the interests of Maharashtrians, they dumped the Sena and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the assembly elections.
“The Maharashtrians have forgotten all our contributions and work for them. They simply dumped us in the last elections,” Thackeray, also the editor of the Marathi newspaper, observed.
Pointing out that the party relentlessly struggled for the cause of the common Maharashtrians, Marathi self respect and pride, Thackeray said it was a mystery why the people blatantly ignored the SS-BJP.
“The Maharashtrians, especially the youth, have totally betrayed us… and it hurts,” Thackeray said.
He listed the manner in which the party has served the Maharashtrians in the past — “When they wanted jobs, they came running to us. When they wanted admissions in schools/colleges, they remembered us. When they wanted medical help or assistance in government departments, they rushed to us. Every time we helped them out. And this is what we get.”
Similarly, the party rushed to help the people whenever there were floods, earthquakes and terror attacks, struggled for compulsory exhibition of Marathi movies in multiplexes, ensured all name plates in business establishments were also written in Marathi, he said.
He lamented that despite seeing how leaders like Navin Patnaik (Orissa), J. Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi (Tamil Nadu), and Narendra Modi (Gujarat) secured their peoples’ votes in the name of “pride” in their state, the Maharashtrians have not learnt from them to become smarter or wiser.
It was said that the Maharashtrians did not consider it prudent to rise above their petty squabbles and unite for their own cause for which the Sena has stood behind them solidly all these years, he said.
“It seems all emotions and feelings for the state have died in the hearts of the Maharashtrians,” Thackeray felt, adding that even in their strongholds around the state the party was ditched by the sons-of-the-soil.
“Where did we go wrong? What were our crimes? Who did we harm? We are really shocked. If we had won, it would not mean that ten floors would be added to ‘Matoshri’ (Thackeray’s residence in Bandra), or a gold roof to the Sena Bhavan (Shiv Sena headquarters in Dadar). It appears all our efforts of the last four decades to install a strong Shivshahi rule have been wasted. Is it worth continuing ahead in earnest?” he asked in the editorial.
However, despite all the anguish and pain over the party’s third consecutive electoral debacle, Thackeray declared that the party has sportingly accepted its defeat.