In a joint rally on Thursday, leaders from the Shiv Sena, BJP and RPI vowed to end the Congress-NCP reign in Maharashtra, and claimed that their three-party alliance will last forever. Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray also severely criticised NCP leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
While RPI leader Ramdas Athawale said that he was inspired by a sense of vengeance against the ruling alliance, Mr Thackeray said that it was high time that the Opposition stops fighting with each other.
The Sena leader condemned Rahul Gandhi for “turning a blind eye” towards atrocities of the Congress governments. “Police firing on farmers in Uttar Pradesh needs to be condemned. But Rahul Gandhi was mum when the Maharashtra government killed a farmer at Jaitapur. He also did not say anything when in New Delhi, the police beat up protesters in Baba Ramdev’s rally,” he said.
However, Mr Thackeray took severe jibes on Mr Pawar. He said that Mr Pawar questioned Bal Thackeray’s contribution towards the society.
“Balasaheb never grabbed people’s lands to build institutions in the name of his forefathers, but he ensured that the kitchens in Marathi families were not empty,” Mr Thackeray said.
Meanwhile, the Sena-BJP-RPI combine declared its policy against corruption and social injustice. However, barring BJP’s leader, Eknath Khadse, all the other speakers targeted the Congress-NCP alliance without discussing either the corruption or social issues.
Mr Khadse said that in the last many years the state’s social justice department was never under a minister from the backward classes. He added that there was no appropriate provision in budget for the large SC/ST population in the state.