Mumbai, Apr 24: Contrary to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's directive urging party leaders and alliance partners to refrain from making personal attacks during the ongoing poll campaign, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray spared no opportunity to attack Congress president Sonia Gandhi today in presence of Prime Minister at a public rally here. "How much Atalji may not like what I am saying I don't know, but this is what I feel," the Sena chief said every time he attacked Sonia, Congress and NCP president Sharad Pawar.
"Sonia is Gandhi family's daughter in-law and not the country's as she claims herself," Thackeray said, reiterating that `Congress was a party of eunuchs' as they cannot find out a prime ministerial candidate among the 100 million populace in the country.
Thackeray stressed that he would forcefully highlight the `foreign origin' issue of Gandhi and will `not let her be prime minister' of the country.
Hitting out at the Congress-NCP alliance formed at the outset of the Lok Sabha polls, he wondered how this alliance which saw a divorce (in 1999) and a remarriage would survive for long.
I strongly feel that the rift between the alliance partners would develop soon after the polls on the issue of who will be the prime minister, and this fight would push the country towards a mid-term poll, Thackeray warned and urged people to give majority to the NDA government for stability in country.
Bureau Report