Within days after he was heckled by the Sainiks at the party’s Dussehra rally, senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi on Friday stood his ground, saying that he had not committed any mistake, the “humiliation” he suffered at the hands of party workers was “pre-planned” one and that Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had no role to play in it.
Breaking his silence over the manner in which he was booed off by the party workers from the Dussehra rally held at Shivaji Park on Sunday last, 76-year-old Joshi said: “I was extremely upset with whatever happened at the Dussehra rally. That’s why I had gone out of Mumbai with my family for four days….. .. I have already written a letter to the party president (Uddhav Thackeray) and explained my stand on the issue”.
Talking to mediapersons here, Joshi said that he had not committed any mistake and the question of his tendering any apology did not arise. “I have been a Shiv Sainik for the last four and a half decades and will continue to be in the Shiv Sena”.
Joshi — who had walked out of the Sena’s Dussehra rally after being heckled by a section of party workers at the Dussehra rally in protest against his recent utterances against Uddhav’s mild style of leadership — said that he had a reason to believe that the humiliation that he was subjected to at the rally was part of a conspiracy hatched by his
detractors within the party. “However, the Sena president (Uddhav Thackeray) was not aware of the conspiracy against me, leave aside his being part of it,” he said.