Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who fought a couple of elections, hand in hand, with Abu Asim Azmi has demanded he should be permanently suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly over his remarks praising Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
Asim had claimed that during Aurangzeb’s reign, India’s borders extended to Afghanistan and Burma and that the country’s GDP accounted for 24% of the world’s total.
Responding to Akhilesh Yadav’s objection to Azmi’s suspension, Thackeray said, “Let him object if he wants to, he should make Abu Asim contest from UP. He does not know the truth.”
Many people have attributed Udhdhav’s loss in the recent election to his softening stands on various issues and joining secular parties, especially the sworn enemy Congress.
This fierce attack on Abu Asim would help him, to a certain extent, to regain the lost aggressive image of Sena.