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2019 Lok Sabha elections: Congress-NCP trying to inflate balloon with holes, says Uddhav
Thackeray, who is set to share the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ausa on Tuesday, said he would tell the PM about the shortcomings of the Centre’s crop insurance scheme.
Attacking the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Vidarbha, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said Congress president Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar are trying to “inflate a balloon that already has holes”. He expressed confidence that the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine will sweep the state by winning all 48 Lok Sabha seats.
“Rahul Gandhi came, Sharad Pawar came to inflate a balloon that already has holes... They say there are 56 parties (in the opposition alliance), I challenge them, even if 156 parties come together they cannot defeat the saffron surge in Maharashtra,” said Thackeray at a rally in Yavatmal.
Thackeray, who is set to share the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ausa on Tuesday, said he would tell the PM about the shortcomings of the Centre’s crop insurance scheme. He added that he wanted the Maharashtra government to do away with the “terms and conditions” in the loan waiver scheme to benefit more farmers. “I am going to request the government to remove the terms and conditions and give complete loan waiver once and for all,” he said while addressing a rally in Yavatmal, which votes on April 11.
Shiv Sena’s Bhavana Gawali, the sitting MP, will take on former Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre. Thackeray slammed Thakre and said that despite having been a minister in the state, he had failed to do anything for the farmers. “That is the difference between a Thackeray and Thakre,” he quipped.
Referring to the Gowari stampede of 1994, in which 114 people from the Gowari community died during a protest march in Nagpur seeking reservation, Thackeray said there is “blood” on the hands of Pawar, who was then Maharashtra chief minister.
“The Gowari tribe sought to seek their rights. Congress did not give (it to) them… I want to tell Pawar and others that you might have washed away the blood-soaked roads (after the stampede), but their blood is on your hands. Do not point fingers at us and ask if we have shame,” he said countering the Congress-NCP campaign, which has been slamming the Sena and BJP for getting into an alliance despite criticising each other for the past five years.
Earlier in the day, the Sena chief held a rally in Wani.
