‘I respect Balasaheb, won’t say a word against Shiv Sena’

Taking forward the stick and carrot policy towards its erstwhile ally-turned-foe Shiv Sena, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday while on the one hand said that he would not be critical of Sena but on the other lambasted the coalition politics for the poor state of affairs in Maharashtra, which goes to the polls on 15 October.

Continuing with BJP’s campaign for Maharashtra assembly elections, Narendra Modi, addressing a rally in Tasgaon on Sunday in Sangli Lok Sabha constituency, said these are the first polls to take place in absence of Bala Saheb Thackeray, the founder of Shiv Sena, who stood for the rights of people. Narendra Modi said they respect him, and due to this reason they would not say a word against Shiv Sena.

However, Modi in the same vein did not hesitate to seek clear majority for BJP in the polls. Urging people to bring the party to power with a thumping majority, Modi said a coalition government is not going to help anyone. ‘There should not be such government in Maharashtra which does not have courage even to share stage with me. They’ll close the gates, they won’t let me enter,’ he said. BJP and Shiv Sena gave a coalition government to Maharashtra between 1995-2000.

Modi added, BJP is ready to take responsibility for the development of Maharashtra and urged to mandate BJP a complete majority in the forthcoming polls. Incidentally, trying to underplay his ‘Gujarati’ image, Modi said that ‘Gujarat was born in 1960, it was a part of Maharashtra before, and Gujarat still believes Maharashtra is its elder brother.’ Modi questioned former agriculture minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar about farmers who committed suicide. He said the UPA government stalled Narmada project for years, but after coming to power, Modi government immediately approved the project.

Meanwhile, the BJP has taken strong exception to Congress president Sonia Gandhi criticising the NDA government and Prime Minister  Narendra Modi during an election rally. Briefing reporters in New Delhi, senior party leader and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged the previous Congress government  was involved in corruption and only spoke about the work but did not implement.