Maharashtra polls: Regain Maharashtra's self respect, urges Raj Thackeray

Terming the seat-sharing talks between BJP -Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP as a shameful and despicable affair, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday appealed to people to hand over the reigns of the state to him for regaining Maharashtra's self-respect. He continued his tirade against the outsiders for increasing unemployment of Maharashtrian youngsters.

Launching the party's campaign at a public rally at the Thakur Village ground in Kandivli, Thackeray criticised all the four parties. Thackeray said that the political tamasha or stage-managed show by all these parties during the seat sharing talks has taken Maharashtra back by 15 years.

He said that the state government was being run by contractors and the ministers were just nodding their heads for the contractors. Waging a scathing attack on Shiv Sena in his 30-minute speech, Thackeray said, "They were discussing seat-sharing for 15 days as if it was orchestrated and they looked begging till the end. While breaking away, Shiv Sena ministers at the Centre has not resigned, nor have they broke the alliance with BJP in the Mumbai civic corporation because it is a matter of income."

Although Thackeray did not name Congress or NCP, he criticised the state government. He alleged that all the four parties were eating up Maharashtra like a termite and the state should get rid of them. Terming the four parties as
hypocrites, he said none of them wanted any alliance.

Assuring that he would make Maharashtra slum-free if came to power, Thackeray said that it is possible to provide employment to Maharashtrian youths as security guards by starting a state-owned security service. He cited the example of a youngster losing his life while giving physical fitness test during the police recruitment and said, "Outsiders are working as security guards with salaries of Rs15,000 to Rs20,000 and Marathi youth are losing life since they cannot afford food before appearing for the fitness test."

He accused the ministers and elected representatives for having an understanding with builder lobby for minting money through the slum rehabilitation scheme. He said that the scheme was started by late Balasaheb Thackeray and the novel scheme has been implemented by this nexus to make money.