Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday lashed out at the BJP and said the party should stop using central agencies against family members. He dared the BJP to arrest him instead of targeting his family members and party leaders. CM's remark came three days after his brother-in-law found himself targeted by the Enforcement Directorate with the agency freezing Rs 6.45 crore in his assets in a money laundering case.
Speaking in the State Assembly on Friday, he said, "If you want to come to power, then come to power. But don't do all these vicious things to come to power. Don't harass our or anyone else's family members. We never bothered your family members."
"It is not that we are saying that your families have done something wrong or that they have something that we can trouble you about. If you want to put us in jail to come to power, put me in jail," Thackeray said.
He also lashed out at the BJP for seeking state minister Nawab Malik's resignation over alleged links with gangster Dawood Ibrahim, and reminded the saffron party that it once shared power with the PDP which had `backed' terror convict Afzal Guru. Thackeray dared the BJP to storm into the fugitive gangster's home and kill him instead of levelling baseless allegations against leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in the state.