Mumbai: MNS chief said on Wednesday that as BJP did not have a face in Maharashtra who could get them votes, the party for pushing forward Narendra Modi to get take them home. He also said that if PM Modi was bust campaigning for his party in Haryana and Maharashtra, then when would he run the country.
In an exclusive interview to Zee Media, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief said, “I don't think that even Atal Bihari Vajpayee did as many rallies as Modi is doing. However, I am not interested in how many rallies Modi holds. What I am saying is that the BJP does not have any leader in the state who they can project and who can get votes for them and that is why they are pushing Modi forward.”
Raj added, “If the people have voted for Modi as PM then he has to look after the country. If he is campaigning in Haryana and Maharashtra, then when will he run the country. He was in US recently and now he is campaigning for his party. There is tension at the border, there are ceasefire violations at LoC by Pakistan, when will Modi give attention to these problems.”
Further attacking the PM, the MNS chief said that while it was fine for Modi to have talked about taking Gujarat ahead of other states when he was the chief minister but I was not right to do so now.
“Now that he is the PM of India, all states should be equal for him. Modi cannot say that he will take one state ahead of others. This cannot be PM's language. And if after becoming the PM of India he take projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat, then that means that his love for Gujarat is same as before. Gujarat CM had come to Maharashtra recently and told businessman to shift to Gujarat. The point is, do you want to take the country ahead or take Gujarat ahead. If I pointed this out then what is wrong with it?” Raj asked.
When asked whether he was soft on his cousin Uddhav Thackeray and whether he was refraining from attacking the Shiv Sena, Raj said that the media was reading too much into it.
“I am not soft on Shiv Sena. I raise issues as and when they crop up. I did say at a rally that if Shiv Sena has broken alliance with BJP then it should break it completely. Why is the alliance continuing at the Centre?”
He also said that every election has a different agenda. “This time my agenda is development of Maharashtra. When all parties are fighting with each other and abusing each other, then I feel my party should present before the people the future of the state, something on which we have worked,” he said.
Raj elaborated that he was “not interested in the fight of other political parties. They are selfish. I am only interested in putting before the people the vision of Maharashtra.”
On whether he would support the Shiv Sena to form the government if it falls short of majority and if the MNS has numbers, Raj answered, “I don't give answer to ifs and buts. No one say as of now as to how many seats which party will. Ater the breakdown of alliance between the BJP-Shiv Sena, the people are as angry with them as they were with the Congress-NCP. They feel that the BJP, Shiv Sena are like the other two parties.”
