Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 8 : Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meeting with parliamentarians who defected from his faction to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
Thackeray's sharp remarks come as the prolonged political and legal battle over the party's split continues to wind its way through the highest court in the country. Pointing to the delayed judicial timeline, Thackeray noted that their disqualification and leadership case has languished for four years, though hearings now appear to be reaching a crucial, continuous final stage.
Against this backdrop, addressing a press conference, Thackeray expressed deep indignation over the Prime Minister's engagements, contrasting the political outreach with civic grievances in the national capital.
"Our case has been pending in the Supreme Court for four years. It now appears that the hearings are reaching their final stages and are proceeding continuously... PM Modi has no time to meet the Gen Z protesters who were demonstrating at Jantar Mantar, but he met with the traitors," Thackeray declared.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief targeted the reported assurances given to the defected lawmakers during their interaction, questioning the wider administrative and political implications of such backing from the highest office.
"Furthermore, these traitors are being given an assurance: 'Do not fear; I am with you...'" Thackeray added, posing a pointed question to the ruling leadership: "Was this message sent to Amit Shah, Devendra Fadnavis, the administration, or to everyone in the party who wishes to commit betrayal?"
When asked whether the meeting could have a bearing on the pending case, Thackeray asserted that they maintain their faith in the judiciary but expressed suspicion about the intent behind the meet.
"It should not be impacted; that much we believe in the judiciary and CJI, but we have a doubt: is it an attempt to pressure the Supreme Court by showing that I (PM Modi) am with traitors," he said.
The remarks underscored the escalating tensions between the rival Sena factions as the political landscape in Maharashtra remains deeply polarised, with both sides closely watching upcoming legal and electoral developments.
For Shiv Sena (UBT), the PM's meeting with Eknath Shinde's MPs could not have come at a worse time, right before the Supreme Court's crucial ruling on the dispute over the "real" Shiv Sena.
Thackeray called the meeting, and the reported assurance of "Do not fear; I am with you," a thinly veiled attempt to influence the judiciary. To him, it was also about legitimacy. He continues to brand the defectors as "gaddars" who engineered an illegal split, and said their felicitation by the highest office undermines his faction's claim to the party's legacy.
He drew a contrast with governance priorities too, slamming the PM for meeting switch-over leaders while, in his view, ignoring Gen Z protesters in Delhi.
Most sharply, Thackeray argued this sets a precedent: publicly backing defectors rewards political betrayal and invites more opportunistic splits in the future.
The Shiv Sena split into two factions in 2022, with one group led by Uddhav Thackeray and the other by Eknath Shinde. Following the split, Shinde approached the Election Commission of India seeking recognition as the real Shiv Sena and claiming the party's name and its iconic bow and arrow symbol.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Thursday raised broader questions about whether political parties themselves must adhere to democratic norms while hearing the case. It observed that the Shiv Sena's constitution had undergone a significant transformation over the years, moving away from its originally democratic framework to what it described as "virtually a one-person structure." The arguments in the case will continue on August 11.
On Friday morning, PM Narendra Modi met with newly aligned NDA MPs over breakfast at his official New Delhi residence. The gathering included former Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs who recently merged with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, as well as rebel MPs who switched over to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).