Raj Thackeray targeting NCP at BJP’s behest: Jayant Patil

Maharashtra minister and state NCP president Jayant Patil on Wednesday accused MNS chief Raj Thackeray of attacking the NCP and its president Sharad Pawar at the BJP’s behest. Patil was talking to reporters at Mangaon in Raigad, a day after Thackeray hit out at NCP leaders at a rally in neighbouring Thane. The opposition BJP in Maharashtra harbours a grudge against Pawar as the NCP chief along with Shiv Sena and Congress formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state, he said. “The BJP always expresses its grudge against Pawar saheb. The BJP has given such a responsibility (of criticising Pawar) to different people. He (Thackeray) is the one who takes responsibility and he now seems to have taken this new responsibility,” Patil claimed.

Thackeray, while criticising Patil during the rally on Tuesday, had mentioned the latter’s first name as “jant” (Marathi word for germs). Hitting back, Patil said Thackeray was a student of Balmohan Vidya Mandir school in Dadar and therefore “is fine with grammar”. “But still, he made the mistake. So, we need to ask the people at Balmohan Vidya Mandir if they can hold sessions for the people (former students) who have forgotten grammar,” the NCP leader quipped. NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto claimed the development plan of the MNS has “disappeared like the BJP’s ‘vikas’ (development) plank”. Thackeray had on Tuesday accused NCP chief Sharad Pawar of doing politics of caste. He had also sought to know why the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the family members of NCP leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, but not the latter’s cousin Supriya Sule (Sharad Pawar’s daughter).