Nagpur: Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Monday launched a scathing attack on Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, accusing him of shielding those involved in the alleged Rs 100 crore extortion racket during the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime. He said the people of the State have not forgotten the controversy.
“Uddhavji, the people know who the real ‘leader of extortionists’ is. In the Assembly elections, Maharashtra also saw who was the ‘Chief Minister’ and who was the ‘Thief Minister’,” Bawankule remarked, taking a swipe at Thackeray. Referring to former API Sachin Waze, he said, “Was Waze imposed from nowhere? Under your leadership, Rs 100 crore was being collected from businessmen.”
The BJP leader further said that before criticising Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Thackeray should “look in the mirror and recall his own tenure”. “The people’s trust is in Fadnavis, while they are tired of you,” he asserted.
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1 Oct 2025
Bawankule also took a jibe at Thackeray’s recent absence from the INDIA bloc protest in Delhi, claiming it was because he would have been made to “stand in the last row”, as per his position in the alliance. “You tried to draw attention by holding a separate protest here with just a handful of supporters while Rahul Gandhi’s agitation was going on there,” he said.
Accusing the former CM of undermining democratic and moral values during his tenure, Bawankule defended Fadnavis’s leadership as “honest, development-oriented, and transparent”. He said the people of Maharashtra have full faith in Fadnavis, while Thackeray has lost their confidence.
