At Uddhav Thackeray Briefing on Maharashtra Deadlock, Dushyant Chautala's Brief Appearance

To highlight that the BJP is a party of U-turns, the Shiv Sena on Friday played a clipping of Jannayak Janata Party chief Dushyant Chautala directly attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah during the poll campaign in Haryana and questioned why the party had joined hands with him to form the government in the state.

“Dushyany Chautala abused Modi and the entire BJP in Haryana. You hugged him within minutes after results were announced. Why?” Thackeray asked during the press conference as he showed the video in which Chautala had remarked “'two Guajaratis will teach us nationalism".

National security had dominated the discourse during the Haryana poll campaign and to counter the BJP narrative, Chautala had said that maximum number of people who join the Army are from Haryana, not Gujarat.

“They talk about of nationalism…maximum number of people who join the Army are from Haryana. So many jawans from our state have been martyred. Will these two Gujaratis, in whose state people are afraid to join the armed forces, teach us nationalism? This all is just BJP’s political agenda,” Chautala had said in an interview.

But the mandate in the state necessitated that the BJP form the government with the support of JJP as the Manohar Lal Khattar-led party fell short of majority by 5 seats in the 90-seat Assembly. Chautala was made the deputy CM while Khattar remained the CM.

Slamming the BJP for allying with such a party, Thackeray said the party is going back on its word. At the press conference, called an hour after former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said that there was no 50-50 deal with the Shiv Sena, the Sena chief said this was the first time that Thackeray family had been called a liar.

“They are lying now when they say that there was no agreement on equal share of power,” he said, adding that the Sena honoured every single commitment for the cause of nationalism, Hindutva and Ram Mandir. “But how can we talk to them if they go back on their word?” he asked.

He also reiterated that all options remain for the Sena, indicating that the party would not averse to exploring the option of seeking support from the NCP and the Congress to form the government in the state.