Thackeray harps on Sonia8217;s origin

The Sena supremo thundered that Sonia, who cannot sing the national anthem, will never be accepted as India8217;s bahu8217;. The Congress should be ashamed for projecting her as Prime Minister, he said while launching a blistering attack against the Congress leaders. The best way to punish them is to defeat these leaders, he said.

The Sena chief did not spare Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar either. He hit out at Pawar for trying to cash in on the foreign origin issue when it had become a major national issue.

Recalling that he was the first leader to raise the issue, the Sena chief said Pawar was among those ridiculing him. When the issue was first raised during the 1998 Lok Sabha poll campaign, Pawar was busy showering Gandhi with praises. Thackeray said that the NCP leader continued to regard her as his leader even while performing as the Opposition leader. Till the time when Sonia rushed to Rashtrapati Bhavan after the fall of the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led government to stake claim on the highest post, Pawar had not talked about the foreign origin issue, Thackeray accused.

While spending more time on Sonia Gandhi8217;s foreign origin, the Sena chief made a passing reference to the locally more important issue of cotton monopoly.

He said that the Shetkari Sanghatana leader Sharad Joshi8217;s demand for scrapping the monopoly scheme was not acceptable to the Sena- BJP alliance.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Nitin Gadkari and Balwantrao Dhoble, Sena candidate for Ramtek Lok Sabha seat, Subodh Mohite, party candidate for Assembly seat, Ramesh Adhau and Ashish Jaiswal also spoke at the public meeting.