Sena's strong foundation helped it retain power: Thackeray

Fresh from his victory in the Mumbai civic polls, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has hit out at critics for predicting doom for his party saying it has been able to retain power in the civic body because of its strong foundation.

"It is only because of the strong base and foundation of social service that my party has been thriving despite vicious attacks from political rivals and the media," Thackeray said in an editorial today.

According to the octogenarian leader, people of Mumbai and Thane have given a befitting reply to the critics by giving a huge mandate to the Sena in the civic polls.

"I not only dreamt of public welfare but ensured the dreams were implemented by giving posts of power to the ordinary workers and getting work done from them," Thackeray wrote.

Thackeray said that unlike the Congressmen, he was not involved in land scams, nor mismanaged sugar co-operative units, nor constructed "Adarsh towers".

"If the Sena-BJP government had not been there in the state, would the Mumbai-Pune expressway have ever seen the light of the day or would those 55 flyovers come up in the city," he asked and said it was during his government's tenure that ambitious projects like the Krishna valley irrigation were initiated.