Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday took a swipe at rebels and said no traitors will be given entry into the party after they turn jobless in one-and-half months after the Maharashtra Assembly elections likely to be held in November.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde led a rebellion against Thackeray in June 2022, resulting in a split in Shiv Sena and causing the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to fall. Since then, Thackeray and the Shiv Sena (UBT) have routinely referred to Shinde and his band of rebels as traitors.

Addressing a job fair organised by his party, Thackeray claimed the people of the state will show the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena its place in the Assembly polls. “After one-and-half months, these traitors (MLAs, MPs who rebelled against the party) will come to us for jobs because they will be jobless. I am not going to give a job to any traitor after the polls,” Thackeray said.

“There was no employment for the Marathi community in Mumbai. Then Balasaheb founded Shiv Sena. He used to say that you should be a job giver and not a job taker. Today I say one more thing all the traitors will not be given any employment in our government,” Thackeray said.

In a further swipe at the Shinde government, the former Chief Minister also said his party, after coming to power, will take account of the loot of state resources.

In light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Maharashtra, Thackeray stated that whenever the former lays the foundation stone of a project, it never gets completed. Thackeray also claimed that no major projects have started in Maharashtra since his government was toppled in 2022 due to instability in the state.

Thackeray also took a swipe at his former ally, stating, “Our Hindutva is the one that helps burn the cooking gas, while the BJP’s Hindutva is the one that burns down the house.”

Farooq Abdullah, National Conference (NC) president on Saturday asserted that his party would not forge a post-election alliance with the BJP for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The NC president said that they cannot go with the BJP because the vote which they have got is the vote against the BJP. He stated that BJP put the Muslims in difficulties, bulldozed their shops, houses, mosques and schools.

Farooq Abdullah further said that the BJP did not give mandate to even a single Muslim in the Parliamentary election nor is there a single Muslim minister in the Union Cabinet. He added that he thinks that the people of the Union Territory will not vote for the BJP, adding that if BJP think they will form the government, then they live in cuckoo’s world. The NC had on Friday clarified that it was not in touch with any political party other than INDIA bloc constituents for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The party’s clarification followed amid speculation that it was engaged in backchannel deliberations with the BJP for government formation. When asked if Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, who is on bail, was a factor in the assembly polls, Farooq Abdullah said he does not see any factor. The former Union Minister said that whoever stands with the BJP will be finished. 

Speaking about the chief minister candidate, the NC president said it will be decided after the results are announced. He stated that even if a political party has a full majority, they cannot say who is going to be what, what is going to happen. He added that they will wait till all the boxes are open and votes are counted. On the Haryana Assembly elections, Abdullah said the Congress will win with a majority there, adding that he has seen what people have suffered.

Haryana registered a voter turnout of 22.7 per cent as of 11 am as the state votes to elect 90 legislators in a single-phase Assembly election on Saturday. The voting commenced at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm as the ruling BJP is aiming a hattrick of Assembly Election wins, while the Congress is hoping to return to power after 10 years.  

After four hours of voting, Palwal registered the highest turnout of 27.94%, followed by Jind at 27.20% and Ambala at 25.50%. Meanwhile, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hisar and Jhajjar recorded lower turnout rates at 20.39%, 17.05%, 24.69% and 23.48% respectively.

Nearly 1,031 candidates in 90 constituencies are voting across 20,632 polling booths. Nearly 20.35 million voters, including more than 1.07 million males, 960,000 females, and 467 third-gender voters are eligible to cast their votes. 

Reportedly, 29,462 police personnel, 21,196 home guards and 10,403 Special Police Officers have been deployed across the state to ensure a smooth voting process. The JJP-ASP alliance is contesting all the seats, with JJP fielding candidates in 70 constituencies and ASP in 20.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appealed to the people of the state to exercise their voting rights to set a new record. Taking to social media platform, X, he asked all the voters to be a part of this holy festival of democracy and set a new record of voting. He further extended his best wishes to all the young voters of the state who are going to vote for the first time. 

Earlier in the 2019 elections, the BJP won 40 seats and formed a coalition government with JJP, which secured 10 seats. Nonetheless, JJP later left the coalition. The counting of votes for Haryana will be announced on October 8.