After Modi's 'Bajrangbali' remark, Uddhav calls for 'Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji' to Marathi votes in Karnataka

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has given a call to the Marathi voters in Karnataka to vote for "Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji' in the Assembly polls in the state, which has a sizeable number of Marathi speaking people in Belgaum and surrounding areas.

He was reacting to Prime Minister Modi's appeal to the people to utter the name 'Jai Bajrangbali' while voting in the Assembly polls on May 10.

Rules governing the elections must have changed: Uddhav

Expressing surprise over the manner in which the Prime Minister invoked Bajrangbali to seek votes, he said if the PM himself was seeking voes in the name of Hinduism, then it appears that the rules governing the elections have changed in the country.

He recalled how his father late Balasaheb Thackeray had sought votes in the name of the Hindutva in 1986 assembly bypolls, when the Election Commission had taken away his voting rights in 1995 for six years. If the Prime Minister is promoting the Hindutva in this election, he presumes that the election rules have by now changed.

He therefore wanted the Marathi-speaking people of Karnataka to say 'Jai Bhawani and Jai Shivaji' and see votes for the candidates of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES).

Thackeray disapproved the debate over the Bajrangbali in the ongoing elections. He said: "The question in this election is not to defeat an individual but trump the dictatorial attitude of the BJP. All people should join hands to defeat the dictatorial tendency among the present rulers."