Uddhav Thackeray said businesses are moving out of the state to Gujarat (File)

Mumbai:

Hitting out at BJP at the Centre, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said that all businesses are moving out of the state to Gujarat and that Mumbai is losing its importance.

While addressing a gathering of senior Shiv Sainiks, the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief said that two people sitting in Delhi have been erasing the importance of Mumbai.

“In 2014 and 2019 they tried to steal Shiv Sena and they knew that the future of ” Gadaar” wouldn’t continue they all would be disqualified. So they didn’t stop there they wanted to finish Shiv Sena completely…Mumbai’s importance had increased then but now these two people sitting in Delhi have been erasing all this. Now all businesses are moving or going to Gujarat. Yesterday, one diamond business moved to Gujarat… You are killing the importance of Mumbai,” Mr Thackeray said.

Apart from this, the ex-Maharashtra Chief Minister also reacted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism of Sharad Pawar during a recent visit to Shirdi.

Mr Thackeray alleged PM Modi “crushed” farmers while questioning his contribution towards their welfare.

“What have you (PM Modi) done for farmers? So tell me what you are doing for the farmers and how you crushed the farmers. Just asking others what did he do?” the Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief said.

“Pawar will look at what he did for farmers. It’s between Pawar and the farmers, But what did you (PM Modi) do for the farmers?” asked Uddhav Thackeray.

“Why were the farmers in the north sitting on the road in the cold, wind and rain for a whole year? Why was the black law withdrawn after that?” he said, taking a dig at PM Modi.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar on Saturday said that the PM should give statements keeping his constitutional stature in mind.

“Prime Minister’s post is an important post. A PM should give a statement keeping his constitutional stature in mind. I don’t know why he targeted me. But I think whatever he said is because of the fact that he was not briefed rightly. Whatever statement PM had made on me, I will respond to that keeping the importance and dignity of PM post,” Sharad Pawar said while speaking at a press briefing in Mumbai.

Mr Pawar served as the agriculture minister when the Congress-led UPA government was in office at the Centre (2004-14).

In a veiled attack on Sharad Pawar, who was the Agriculture Minister in the UPA government, PM Modi had said that while the BJP-led government was actively empowering farmers, some individuals in Maharashtra were engaged in political activities under the guise of representing farmers.

Sharad Pawar also claimed that the fear of losing power might have pushed the PM to make such comments.

“He (PM Modi) was there to seek Darshan of Sai Baba in Shirdi, what was the need to take Darshan of Sharad Pawar there? If you see the nationwide picture, there are a lot of states where the BJP is not in power or their government has come after some sabotage in other parties. And wherever there is a BJP government, they are on weak foot. This weakness and fear of losing power may have forced him (PM) to make such statements,” Mr Pawar added.

Further, the NCP supremo explained the crisis situation he faced during his 10-year tenure as the agriculture minister under the Congress regime.

“I want to make my stand clear on the statements made by PM Modi in Shirdi about my tenure as Agriculture Minister. I was Agriculture Minister for 10 years from 2004 to 2014. I had a crisis on the very first day of my tenure as Agri minister,” Mr Pawar said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)