“Mogambo Khush Hua”: Uddhav Thackeray taunts Amit Shah over Sena Name Row

Bombay:

Shiv Sena faction chief Uddhav Thackeray, stripped of the party name and election symbol by the Election Commission, today attacked the BJP and its chief strategist Amit Shah with one of the most famous lines from the movie “Mr India” — “Mogambo khush hua”. Thackeray also took aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying when the Shiv Sainiks rescued Mumbai during the 1993 serial blasts, “Those who now spoke of Hindutva, where were they? Address unknown. Now they boast a 56 inch chest. So where was that 56-inch box? He was sweating.”

While once people “wore Modi masks at rallies, it is now Prime Minister Modi who is looking for Balasaheb Thackeray’s mask,” he added, pointing to the months-long battle with the BJP and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for the legacy from his father . That battle was settled in Mr Shinde’s favor on Friday by the Election Commission – a decision Mr Thackeray intends to challenge in the Supreme Court.

“Yesterday someone (Amit Shah) came to Pune. He asked how are things in Maharashtra. Then someone said it was a very good day because the name and symbol of Shiv Sena was given to the slaves who came with us. So he (Mr. Shah) said very well, ‘Mogambo khush hua,'” Mr. Thackeray said at a public meeting in Mumbai’s Andheri.

“These are the Mogambos of today. Like the original Mogambo, they want people to fight among themselves so they can enjoy power,” Thackeray added.

However, the 62-year-old former chief minister of Maharashtra called the polling body’s move a “good thing” as it “has enraged the people”.

“They evicted me from my own house and the verdict fell in favor of thieves,” he said, warning that if they get away with it, it could be repeated with any other party.

Mr Thackeray also had a stinging reaction to Amit Shah’s claim that he had surrendered “at the feet of Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Party Congress”, to become the prime minister.

“In 2019, Uddhav Thackeray campaigned with us, but when poll results came, he forgot all ideologies and fell on Sharad Pawar’s feet and asked to make him CM. BJP has no lust for power and we will never forget our ideologies, said Mr Shah, who is currently in Maharashtra ahead of the Mumbai citizen polls.

“Mogambo said I was licking the feet of Congress and NCP for the CM post. Now after what they’ve done, who knows who’s licking what… How about when you were sitting with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (the former chief of Jammu and Kashmir’s People’s Democratic Party),’ said Mr Thackeray, citing the surprise alliance between the two parties with opposing ideologies to rule the former state in 2015.

“You want my father’s face, but not his son. The son who was with you. I defy them to come before me with the stolen bow and arrow. I have the mashaal (torch) and we’ll see what happens happens… They can I stole the bow and arrow, but Ram is with me,” Mr Thackeray said.

The battle between the two Sena factions and the various movements within them has been challenged by the Supreme Court, which will hear the case next Tuesday.