Milind Deora calls Aaditya Thackeray ‘outsider’ in Worli Sena vs Sena battle

Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora on Monday described his high-stakes electoral contest against Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray from Worli Assembly seat as a “political battle” and accused him of hindering development in Mumbai and Maharashtra through his “speed-breaker politics”.
In the Sena vs Sena battle, Deora, who left the Congress and joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in January, will face off against Aaditya Thackeray, the son of former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, from Worli seat. Worli has been a stronghold of the Shiv Sena (UBT) faction and was convincingly won by the junior Thackeray in the 2019 Assembly polls.
In an interview with India Today News Director Rahul Kanwal, Deora called Aaditya Thackeray an “outsider” and spoke about the relevance of raising local issues by a local candidate.
“I am a south Mumbaikar. I was born here, I live here and I work here. This is my ‘janmabhoomi’ and ‘karmabhoomi’. This battle is not personal, it is political. No doubt, Aaditya Thackeray is a formidable opponent. No doubt, he is a significant face and the party he belongs to,” Deora said.
Asked about the Shiv Sena’s decision to field him from the high-profile seat, Deora asserted that there should be a local candidate who would understand and connect with the voters.
“There was a discussion initially between alliance partners and debate internally was that Aaditya Thackeray is an outsider. We want a strong candidate in Worli. We thought internally that Worli should go to a ‘Worlikar’. We did think we should give it to a local ‘karyakarta’ (party worker) and make it a battle vs Aaditya Thackeray. Then, we thought of pros and cons vs putting our best foot forward,” he said.
The Worli seat located in the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency was once the backyard of the Deora family. Milind Deora’s father, a Congressman, won from this seat four times from 1984 to 1991 and his son emerged victorious in 2004 and 2009 on a Congress ticket.
Back to 2024, Milind Deora said he had great hopes from Aaditya Thackeray when he won from Worli in 2019 but believed there was anti-incumbency against him.
“I thought he would do good things for this area, do a lot for Mumbai and Maharashtra. Unfortunately, it has not happened. He displaced two ‘Worlikar’ MLAs who later became MLCs. He has no right to talk about whether I should be in the Rajya Sabha or not. There is anti-incumbency against him,” he said.
Taking a potshot at the junior Thackeray, Deora accused him of being “attracted” to speed-breaker politics and opposing any central projects taking place in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra.
“He is opposing a 300-acre proposed public park in Mumbai, saying a tower will come up. He is opposing Vadhavan port, where I went for the ‘bhumi poojan’ (ground-breaking ceremony). He opposes one of the biggest refineries in Maharashtra, the biggest nuclear power plant in the Konkan and the Mumbai Metro,” he said.
The former Congress leader said that Aaditya didn’t understand the problems of an average ‘Mumbaikar’ and claimed that the former Maharashtra Chief Minister’s son has never travelled in a local train in the city.
“As a young boy, I took trains and buses. I don’t think he has ever taken a train in Mumbai in his life or what are the problems faced by daily commuters. This speed-breaker politics is unfortunate. He has gotten into that rut where he is trying to spread fear. On one hand, he wants assistance from the Centre and, on the other hand, he is opposing all central-run projects,” he added.
Deora said Aaditya Thackeray was copying this narrative of spreading fear “from someone else who is not from Mumbai or Maharashtra”. Asked if he was referring to Rahul Gandhi, he did not bulge and said he never spoke about him.
He accused the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of supporting corruption and blamed it for Maharashtra’s drop in FDI rankings.
Recalling an incident, Deora said, “When the MVA was in power, a corrupt police officer was extorting money from industrialists, planting gelatin sticks outside their homes. The chief minister said, ‘Please don’t compare him with Osama bin Laden, he’s a good man’. How can a chief minister give a corrupt police officer a clean chit?”
“If this situation is happening, what would small businessmen or traders do? Would they have confidence? Obviously, people would flee. His party should explain why it gave a clean chit to the corrupt police officer,” he added.
Deora said Maharashtra dropped to second position for the first time in terms of attracting FDI in India when the MVA was in power. He asserted that the state climbed to the top spot after Eknath Shinde became the Chief Minister in 2022.
“This government will not encourage a rogue police officer, let alone give him a clean chit. This government wants to take the city and the state forward,” he said.
Recalling another incident, Deora asserted that a UPA minister in the Manmohan Singh-led government overturned his decision as environment minister over the construction of Navi Mumbai airport.
“The Navi Mumbai airport was commissioned seven years ago. He had cleared the project being the environment minister himself. But, a UPA minister in his government overturned his decision after he became the environment minister. Such people doing activist politics should be punished. They are punishing Mumbai and Maharashtra,” Deora said without naming the individual.
Maharashtra, which has 288 Assembly seats, will vote in a single phase on November 20. Counting of votes will be taken up three days later.