Raj Thackeray hits out at BJP over government directors on Gokul board, backs Satej Patil

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray has stepped into the fight over control of the Gokul milk federation, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of double standards. In a post on X, he asked the BJP to stop what he called its game of deceit in the federation and sided with Congress leader Satej Patil.

The row follows the Gokul election, in which members gave a clear majority to the alliance panel of like-minded groups led by Patil. Even so, the BJP has remained highly aggressive. After the result, a decision was taken to place five government directors on the Gokul board, and four of them are to be given the right to vote. There is a fear that the step could cost Patil's alliance the chairmanship. The Congress has also readied itself to challenge the state government's decision in court.

Thackeray asked why five government directors were being nominated at all and why they should be allowed to vote. If the BJP cared so much about democracy, he asked, what was happening in Gokul?

He described the BJP as a "strange party". It holds power from the bottom to the top, he said, yet it is organising marches in the name of "save democracy". In his view, a ruling party marching against the opposition would be the only such example in the world.

Thackeray also quoted the election figures. The BJP's panel won 12 seats in Gokul, while Patil's panel won 13. He wondered why five directors of the government, meaning the BJP's own people, were appointed straight after the count, and what the party was trying to prove by handing them votes. The elected directors, he pointed out, had reached the board through ballot voting and by contesting by the democratic route. Had the BJP truly valued democracy, he said, it would not have acted this way. According to him, once the party failed to win power in Gokul, it set aside every principle, and now it plans marches to save democracy on top of that.

The MNS chief also used sarcasm. He said it was astonishing that Maharashtra was facing a severe drought of water and, at the same time, the BJP was suffering a severe drought of sense.

Thackeray then listed what he expects from the ruling party. While in power, he said, these leaders will march to "save democracy" and strangle democracy themselves. Terror attacks took place and law and order worsened during their tenure, so they will march to "save the country from terrorism". The country's economy has sunk into a pit, so marches will follow to "save the economy" as well.

He closed with advice for the BJP: it should stop behaving like a sore loser and drop its game of deceit. For 12 years, he said, the opposition parties tolerated whatever majority the BJP gathered, by whatever route. Now that the people of the country are beginning to lean towards the opposition, the BJP too must learn to tolerate it, Thackeray said in his post.