'Don't trust Pawar, I was told, but my own men betrayed me'

Asserting that there will be a chief minister from the Shiv Sena again and that Sena hasn’t shut shop, party president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said he had asked the “betrayers” till the last moment if they wanted to become CM and if they had spoken out clearly, things could have been resolved “but the betrayers didn’t have enough courage.”

- Chaitanya Marpakwar

Mumbai: Uddhav said he was constantly told that Congress would betray Sena and that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was not to be trusted, but in the end, his own people had betrayed him.

“I was constantly being told ‘the Congress will betray us and don’t trust Sharad Pawar at all, he will surely pull you down.’ They also told me these things about Ajit Pawar, but my own people betrayed me… Even at the last minute, I had asked the betrayers, do you want to become CM? If yes, we can talk, I will tell the Congress-NCP and if you want to go with BJP, we can talk to BJP too if they provide clarity on 2-3 questions… we could have told Congress-NCP our MLAs are not happy with you. But they didn’t have courage,” Thackeray said.