Raj Thackeray questions BJP over government directors on Gokul board, backs Satej Patil

Five directors will be appointed by the government to the board of the Gokul milk union, and four of them will also have the right to vote. The Mahayuti has taken this decision. MNS chief Raj Thackeray has now targeted the Mahayuti and the BJP over it and has expressed his support for Satej Patil.

Because of the decision, Satej Patil's Samvichari Aghadi faces the prospect of losing the chairman's post. The Congress has prepared to go to court against the government's decision. It has also begun preparations to go to the public. The opposition has taken an aggressive stance on the Mahayuti's decision.

Thackeray said the BJP should stop its "radi ka daav", a game of cheating, in Gokul. He asked why the government was appointing five directors, why it was giving them the right to vote, and why all this was being done in Gokul if democracy was to be respected. He also said there was a severe famine of good sense in the BJP.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party is a strange party," Thackeray said. "It is in power from the bottom to the top, yet it is holding marches in the name of saving democracy." According to him, this would be the only example in the world where the ruling party holds a march against an opposition party.

Citing the Gokul result, he said 13 members of Satej Patil's panel were elected against 12 of the BJP's panel. He asked why five directors of the government, that is, the BJP's own, were appointed immediately afterwards, and what was being proved by giving them the right to vote. He said those who were elected had won through the ballot and by contesting democratically. Thackeray said that if the BJP truly cared about democracy, it would not have done this. In his words, having failed to win power in Gokul, the BJP had set aside all its principles and would now hold marches saying "save democracy".

Thackeray said that while in power the BJP would hold marches to save democracy and would itself strangle democracy. He added that terror attacks had taken place and law and order had deteriorated in its time, so it would hold marches to save the country from terrorism. He also said the country's economy had gone into a pit, so it would now hold marches to save the economy too.

"There is a severe famine of water in Maharashtra right now, and a severe famine of good sense in the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is astonishing how the two have come at the same time," Thackeray said.

On the majority, Thackeray told the BJP that whatever route it took to win its majority, all opposition parties had put up with it for 12 years. Now that the people of the country were beginning to lean towards the opposition, the BJP too should learn to put up with it. In this battle for power in Gokul, Satej Patil now appears to have Raj Thackeray's backing as well.