Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray lashed out against the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra for turning a blind eye towards hailstorm-hit farmers' plight and urged people to vote out the ruling parties during the general elections.
He was addressing a moderately attended public meeting at Science Core ground Friday evening to officially launch the Shivsena-BJP-RPI(A) alliance's Lok Sabha campaign in the Western Vidarbha region.
BJP leader Gopinath Munde, Shiv Sena Deputy Leader Subhash Desai, RPI Leader Ramdas Athawale, Lok Sabha candidates Anandrao Adsul (Amravati), Sanjay Dhotre (Akola) and Pratap Jadhav (Buldana) were among those present.
Thackeray summarily held the Congress-NCP responsible for farmers' suicides and also took a dig at Rahul Gandhi saying, "When the region was suffering hailstorm, Rahul Gandhi was staging road shows. What concern does his party have for farmers".
He did not spare Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Paswar and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. He charged that they never showed any concern for farmers in Vidarbha nor for its development.
"They are now making a show of it because they know that elections are ahead. But have you ever seen Sharad Pawar's photo with any farmer in last five years," he asked.
Clarifying that he did not consider today's meeting as an "election meeting", Thackeray promised to return to the city once more before polls to do a post-mortem of the Congress-NCP alliance.
"I am not here today to demand votes, but to console farmers in distress," he said and exhorted farmers to dump the insensitive government.
Earlier, Munde too criticised the Congress-led government for ignoring the region, demanding a loan and electricity bill waiver for this year as well as compensation of Rs 15,000 per acre to dryland farmers, Rs 30,000 to semi-irrigated land owners and Rs 50,000 per acre to horticulturists for losses incurred by them due to hailstorm.
Also Read