Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray today hit out at NCP chief Sharad Pawar, saying that Pawar `served’ Sonia Gandhi for 15 years despite being kicked out by the Congress president from her party in 1999.
Thackeray addressed a rally at Sangli in western Maharashtra, ahead of the Sangli Miraj Kupwad municipal corporation election.
“Today Pawar said he had not seen a coalition government such as ours (Sena-BJP) where we criticise the BJP but stay in power. He should know that both the parties are separate since inception. It was you, who back-stabbed then Congress chief minister Vasantdada Patil to become chief minister of Maharashtra. I haven’t seen a leader like you.
“Shiv Sena criticises BJP if there is a mistake and we both are capable of sorting it out. Pawar should not worry about it. Pawar did not leave the party, in fact he was kicked out of the Congress by Sonia Gandhi, still he served her for (the next) 15 years,” the Shiv Sena leader said, in reference to NCP’s subsequent alliance with the Congress.
Pawar, while paying tributes to the first chief minister of Maharashtra late Yashvantrao Chavan at Karad this morning, took potshots at the Sena. “Shiv Sena is stuck to the power as if by adhesive. I have not seen such coalition government where one party continues to criticise another,” he said.
—PTI