Uddhav Thackeray announces decision to go to Ayodhya on November 25

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray announced on Thursday that he will go to Ayodhya on November 25. He was addressing the annual Dussehra rally of the party at Shivaji Park in Mumbai.

Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government, Thackeray said if the assurance given regarding the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya turned out to be a Jumla like the assurance of Rs 15 lakh, then there was indeed fault in the DNA of this government. "If you fail to build the temple, then this is not NDA government and there is a fault in your DNA," said Thackeray. "I am going there to remind you of the assurance regarding Ram Mandir. The prime minister has time to travel across the world, to countries which we knew existed only because of Geography books, but he doesn't have time to visit Ayodhya which is in the state from where he has been elected to the Lok Sabha. If you don't do it, we will do it, the Shiv Sainiks will do it."

Criticising the Union government for its failure to control inflation and continued increase of prices of petrol and diesel, Thackeray said, "If you can't control inflation, prices of petrol and diesel, if you can't guarantee safety and security of women, what can you do. You have eleventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu with you and still you say that it's not in our hands,". Recently a Maharashtra BJP spokesman had termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as eleventh avatar of Lord Vishnu.

Thackeray criticised Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for the delay in declaring drought in Maharashtra. "People are dying, families are migrating and our government wants to study the situation. Meanwhile, Karnataka government has already declared drought in that state. Our leaders still want to call for reports, analyse the situation and continue to debate," he said.

He also slammed Union minister Nitin Gadkari for his statement on a television programme that so many assurances were given because the BJP had never thought that they would come to power. "Some people may call it frankness, but I call it shamelessness," said Thackeray.