Nitesh Rane targets Gujarati community again; says he wants to start cleaning up 'Marathi hating Gujjus'

In what could lead to a fresh controversy for the Congress, MLA Nitesh Rane, the son of senior Congress leader Narayan Rane, on Wednesday once again targeted Gujarati community residing in Mumbai. 

Taking to the micro blogging twitter, Nitesh wrote, "Wanna take part in Swacha Bharat abhiyan n start from Mumbai!! Wanna start cleaning up all the Marathi hating gujjus from there once for all."

Wanna take part in Swacha Bharat abhiyan n start from mumbai!! Wanna start cleaning up all the Marathi hating gujjus from there once for all

— nitesh rane (@NiteshNRane) November 5, 2014

This is not the first time Nitesh has targeted the Gujarati community. Earlier as well, he had targeted the Gujarati community in Mumbai on Twitter and poked fun at them for being vegetarians. Nitesh has been using the Marathi maanoos card to target the Gujarati community in an attempt to mock Narendra Modi for a while now. He recently won the Maharashtra assembly elections with a margin of over 25,000 votes from Kankavkli constituency.

Congress leader Hussian Dalwai said, "If he (Nitesh) has made any comment, then it is wrong. Such comments which can lead to disharmony in the society should not be made. Congress party has always been taking everyone together and the tweet made by him is his personal view." 

Here is a tweet posted by Nitesh Rane on July 23, 2013

Veg skies,Veg hospitals,Veg housing societies..soon Veg Mumbai!Either Gujjus go back to Gujarat or they turn Mumbai into Gujarat..Red alert!

— nitesh rane (@NiteshNRane) July 22, 2013

However, later on Thursday, November 6,  reacting to the uproar, Rane tweeted, "So much ho ha about my statement on the Marathi hating gujjus but no one is focusing on the hate statements passed by them almost everyday."

So much ho ha abt my statement on the Marathi hating gujjus but no 1 is focussing on the hate statements passed by them almost everyday

— nitesh rane (@NiteshNRane) November 6, 2014