Nobodycan thrashmyparty,sayssenachief No alliance with MNS: Pawar
2019 POLLS Continuing the tirade against ally BJP, Uddhav Thackeray hits back at PM Modi, Amit Shah
MUMBAI : Taking on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah over his remarks last week, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said “nobody can thrash my party”.
Shah had last week remarked that allies, who do not join the alliance for the Lok Sabha polls, will get trashed [unko patak denge]. “The one who can thrash the Sena is still to be born in this world. Those who tried to mess with us in the past have already seen the results,” said Thackeray, addressing the conclave of the Sena’s Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti (SLS) Mahasangh.
Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in his address at the BJP’S national executive meet on Saturday, said the country will prefer a “mazboot sarkar instead of a mazboor sarkar”, Thackeray said, “It is imperative to have a strong country instead of just a strong government. He and the BJP must look at the country’s history to see what work had been done during coalition governments vis-a-vis a single-partydominated government. What is the use of a prime minister, who instead of tackling country’s enemies, becomes a burden on its citizens?”
Thackeray said it was a paradox that the Modi government increased the income limit for reservation to ₹8 lakh, but the taxable limit slab stands at ₹2.5 lakh. “Modi should raise this exemption limit to ₹8 lakh to give relief to the middle class. I have asked the Sena MPS to raise this demand,” said Thackeray.
Criticising the Central government on the Ram temple issue, he said, “Why is the BJP seeking votes in the name of Ram temple, when the matter is still in court? Was there not a court case when the Babri Masjid was demolished,” he asked.
Thackeray said he has taken up the issue of the temple ahead of the forthcoming elections to expose the BJP.
He also slammed the BJP for unfairly blaming the Congress for creating hurdles in the construction of the temple. “Why blame the Congress when the BJP’S allies namely Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan are against the temple,” asked Uddhav.
He said the Congress was thrown out of power over the issue, but the BJP, with its clear majority, can easily build the temple.
The Sena has continued its criticism of ally BJP ahead of 2019 polls, even as the party has held informal seat-sharing talks with the latter. Both the saffron parties are currently unsure whether the talks will lead to a pact, with Thackeray refusing to tone down the criticism. MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said his party will not forge an alliance with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
“There are no talks going on between the NCP and MNS. The two parties are not joining hands for the upcoming elections,” said Pawar, during a press conference in Kolhapur, amid speculations of a tie-up ahead of the upcoming general polls.
The NCP had, in September 2018, proposed that the MNS could be accommodated in the grand alliance. State NCP leaders were of the opinion that the MNS could help the Congressncp’s prospects in 25 urban Assembly seats, as the party would eat into the Shiv Senabharatiya Janata Party (BJP) votes.
However, after the Congress opposed including MNS in the alliance, the NCP has ruled out the tie-up officially.
Pawar also said that seatsharing talks with the Congress for the Lok Sabha constituencies would be completed in the next eight days.
Last week, Pawar had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi along with other senior leaders from both the parties to finalise the talks on pre-poll seat-sharing.
“Our discussions with the Congress are on. Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, there is no consensus only on three seats. The Congress and the NCP are analysing which party has better poll prospects on these seats,” Pawar said.
The former Maharashtra chief minister also raised questions on the 10% reservation bill passed by the Narendra Modi government.
He said the quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) may fall through, as the Supreme Court has capped the reservation quota at 50%.
“Can the Centre’s 10% reservation withstand legal scrutiny? I spoke to many legal luminaries and they were of the opinion that the decision on the raised quota ceiling may fall through in court. The government is arguing that they made a Constitutional amendment, but the Supreme Court has stated that they can’t change the basic structure of the Constitution by raising the 50-% reservation ceiling,” Pawar said.
UDDHAV THACKERAY SAID HE HAS TAKEN UP THE ISSUE OF THE TEMPLE AHEAD OF THE FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS TO EXPOSE THE BJP