Sena protests PM’s Mallya remark

The Shiv Sena on Sunday came down heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after he spoke about considering helping Vijay Mallya’s ailing Kingfisher Airlines.

The Shiv Sena on Sunday came down heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after he spoke about considering helping Vijay Mallya’s ailing Kingfisher Airlines.

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“We see Manmohan Singh running to save Vijay Mallya. I wish he would show the same concern and bail out the common man,” said Uddhav Thackeray, Sena executive president, while addressing a rally in Nashik.

Commenting on the NCP leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s remarks on the Sena’s involvement in the sugarcane price fight, he said: “Pawar said he would never budge and give farmers a price above Rs 1,450 per hectare, but now the Congress has deflated his ego and agreed to give more than that.”

The Sena has been demanding that farmers get a procurement price of Rs 2,300 per quintal.

He also criticised Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who had said the Sena should show if it could run a sugar factory and then talk about sugarcane price. “Forget a sugar factory, soon we will run the whole state,” he said.

Thackeray said he would be holding a meeting to settle the dispute between Amul officials and distributors over the commission they get from the firm.