"Such statements should not be made": SP's Ram Gopal Yadav slams Shiv Sena (UBT)

Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 8 : Days after pulling out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav criticised Shiv Sena (UBT) over "communal remarks" and said that such statements should not be made.
He added that when an alliance is formed, there are issues that should not be publicly discussed and remarked that Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena should have stopped making such statements or clarified that they don't represent the party's official position.
"The kind of statements being made by the people there should not be made. People do not have the brains to think about what should be said and when it should be said. When an alliance is forged, several things are such that they are not said. Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena should have stopped the statement or said that this is not the statement of the party," Yadav said.
Yadav, however, reaffirmed the Samajwadi Party's support for the INDIA bloc and expressed the desire for it to continue contesting elections together.
"Samajwadi Party wants the INDIA Alliance to continue and contest elections together," he stated.
He further confirmed that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is still the leader of the alliance, "as of now."
"The leader of the alliance, as of now, is Kharge sahab (Mallikarjun Kharge)," he added.
Earlier on Saturday, SP Maharashtra president Abu Azmi announced that the party had quit the alliance in the state due to the remarks made by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader.
"Samajwadi Party was, is and will always be against communalism. SP leaves Maha Vikas Aghadi because of Shiv Sena (UBT)," he stated in a post on X.
Azmi was referencing the remarks made by the Shiv Sena (UBT) that had posted a picture of the Babri Masjid and Balasaheb Thackeray, expressing solidarity with the Babri masjid demolition.
Meanwhile, following SP's pullout from the MVA alliance, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said that the Samajwadi Party unit of Maharashtra sometimes behaves like the "B team of BJP."
"I would not like to comment much on them. Akhilesh Yadav is fighting his fight, but the SP here (Maharashtra unit of SP) sometimes behaves like the B team of BJP... Our Hindutva is clear...Our Hindutva is about 'hriday mein Ram aur haath ko kaam'...Our Hindutva is about taking everyone together," Thackeray said while addressing reporters today.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a huge drubbing in the recent Maharashtra Assembly Elections with Congress winning just 16 seats. Its alliance partner, Shiv Sena (UBT), won 20 seats, while the NCP (SCP) secured only 10 seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance, secured a landslide win with 235 seats. Its allies, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party also made notable gains, with 57 and 41 seats, respectively.