Mumbai: Being Shankarrao Chavan's son is not a qualification to become Maharashtra Chief Minister, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray said here today.
"He (Ashok Chavan) may be Shankarrao's son. That's not the qualification. Even I have a son," Thackeray said in an interview to his party's mouthpiece Samaana .
Further, commenting on Chavan replacing Vilasrao Deshmukh as the chief minister, Thackeray said, "This is not an upheaval (in state politics). What purpose does it serve? It is not even an important development."
"It is like ironing of a creased dress... Congress and NCP used the terror attacks as a pretext to put up a new arrangement which suits them," he said.
"There was a time when truly great people held chief minister's post in the state," he said.
He added that NCP president Sharad Pawar had been a "gutsy" chief minister, but "he is no more Sharad Pawar of the past."
The real upheaval would be ridding the state of Congress government, he said.
Talking about Narayan Rane, one-time Shiv Sena member who later joined Congress, Thackeray said Rane s "greed" was his undoing.
Shiv Sena would not take Rane back into its fold, Thackeray further said.
Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal was "a better bet than Rane", Thackeray said. Bhujbal too is a former Shiv Sena man.
