Uddhav Thackeray: Congress-NCP leaderless, struggled to find candidates

Uddhav Thackeray

Amravati: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said Tuesday that the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra lacked both leaders and direction. The Sena-BJP alliance will win all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Thackeray said, addressing a campaign rally for sitting MP and Sena candidate Anandrao Adsul. "Congress-NCP alliance is leaderless and rudderless... They even struggled to find candidates," he said.

Saying that the strike carried out by the Indian Air Force on a terrorist training camp at Balakot taught a lesson to Pakistan, Thackeray asserted that for "a strong and safe nation", prime minister Narendra Modi must get another term in office.

The steps taken by the NDA government for farmers' welfare were bearing fruit, the Sena chief said. Referring to alleged scams that took place during the Congress-NCP regime in the state, Thackeray said if these parties came back to power, the country would plunge into "darkness". Polling for the Amravati Lok Sabha constituency in eastern Maharashtra will be held on April 18.

Among the 24 candidates in the fray, prominent ones are Adsul, independent candidate Navneet Rana who is supported by the Congress and NCP, Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi's Gunwant Deopare and BSP's Arun Wankhade.

The Sena Chief on Sunday criticised the Congress for its poll assurance on scrapping sedition law. He asked NCP chief Sharad Pawar to clarify his stand on the issue. Thackeray was addressing a rally in Osmanabad for Shiv Sena's Lok Sabha candidate Pavanraje Nimbalkar.

"The Congress has assured of striking down the sedition law, and I would like to know whether Congress' partner NCP and Sharad Pawar are also of the same opinion," he said.

Reacting to the Congress-NCP audio-visual campaign tagline "Laj Kashi Vatat Nahi (Aren't they ashamed), Thackeray said, "In fact, the mother India will say that she is ashamed of both of you, the Congress and the NCP". "It is the need of the hour to ask Sharad Pawar whether he is ashamed of himself," he said.

Thackeray also labelled JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) students with Left inclination, including CPI candidate from Begusarai Kanhaiya Kumar, as "red monkeys". "There is some university called the JNU and its red monkeys like Kanhaiya Kumar. Who are these people, who gave out slogans of breaking India into several pieces? How can you expect people to call them patriotic and not anti-nationals?" Thackeray said.

"I believe that had Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj been alive today, he would have thrown such anti-nationals off the cliff from one of his forts," he said.

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