Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said a vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a "vote for destruction" and asserted the INDIA alliance, of which his party is a constituent, will not allow Barsu and Jaitapur projects to come up in Maharashtra's Konkan region.
He was addressing a rally in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency in the state's coastal belt for party candidate and sitting MP Vinayak Raut, who is pitted against Union minister Narayan Rane.
The proposed Barsu (refinery complex) and Jaitapur (nuclear power plant) projects are destructive for environment, the former chief minister asserted.
"A vote for Modi is vote for destruction. I am sorry I had come here last time appealing to you to make Modi the PM and you listened to me. Now I am telling you, just like you listened to me during the Covid pandemic, that you must keep BJP's dictatorship at bay," Thackeray said.
Alleging the BJP had hatred for Maharashtra, Thackeray claimed it wanted to change the Constitution, which was drafted by "son of the soil" Babasaheb Ambedkar.
"Babasaheb Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj were born in Maharashtra. What can we do if Aurangazeb was born in Gujarat," he asked, linking the Mughal emperor, widely perceived as bigot, to the PM's home state.
Thackeray said Modi keeps blaming the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was on the post for 16 years, while the combined tenure of Modi and Vajpayee was longer.
"They should tell the country about their work and achievements," he said, adding PM Modi lacks the self-confidence of 2014 and 2019 (general elections).
Attacking the BJP, he said former PM and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee's soul must be shedding tears on the party's state now.
Without naming Narayan Rane, Thackeray said the former went wherever he saw power, got important posts but did nothing for the Konkan region.
He asked if Rane, who is Union MSME minister, had brought a single medium or micro business to the Konkan.
"If you all were not around, Konkan would have seen goondaraj (rule of goons)," Thackeray told his supporters."
