In Saamana editorial, Uddhav Thackeray taunts city’s Gujarati community for earning money for development of Gujarat
Mumbai : Issuing an advisory for Narendra Modi, Shiv Sena on Monday asked the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate not to worry about Maharashtra. Narendra Modi recently at a rally in Mumbai had said that though Maharashtra and Gujarat were born on the same day, the latter had moved ahead.
“In Maharashtra it is the Shiv Sena who carries the saffron flag of Shivaji Maharaj”, party president Uddhav Thackeray wrote in the editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’. “As far as Maharashtra is concerned, Modi should take it easy”, it said.
“The pace of development in Gujarat has increased under Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister but Maharashtra is ahead on development front”, the Sena leader said. Stating that the “anti-Congress roar of Modi is reflective of the public sentiments”, Uddhav wished the BJP leader all the best in his endeavour to become the Prime Minister.
Referring to Modi’s rally in Mumbai, Uddhav said, “The Gujarati community and ‘Hindutvavadi’ masses were enthusiastic because Modi was coming to Mumbai. “In order to make this rally a huge success, lot of advertisements full of creativity claiming that Modi is going to make ‘maha-garjana’ were seen everywhere in the financial capital….Modi said ‘Mumbai is second home to Gujaratis’. There are indeed a lot of Gujaratis in Mumbai, they do business and a big chunk of what they earn here goes in to development of Saurashtra, Kutch and Surat”, Uddhav said.
“Despite so much lack of development in the state (Maharashtra), Modi said Maharashtra is still second home to Gujaratis. “Gujaratis have earned lots of money. Modi also says that he will bring back black money. He will surely bring it back if he comes to power. Except for a few corrupt politicians, there are no Marathis in that list of black money holders,” he said.
In another jibe, the editorial said: “Once Modi becomes the Prime Minister, he will bring back Dawood Ibrahim to India and will also solve Maharashtra’s border issue with Karnataka.”
Thackeray ends his editorial by offering Mr Modi his best wishes for his run for prime minister. When the BJP announced Narendra Modi as its presumptive PM in September, the Sena had backed its ally’s decision, but made it known that Mr Modi was not its first choice from among the potential candidates in the BJP. The party has said it would have preferred Sushma Swaraj.
