Mumbai, April 30: Claiming that Mumbai was on the verge of being separated from Maharashtra, Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray on Friday said he would ‘personally join the battle to thwart any such attempt.’
“We will not spare those who are out to divide Maharashtra. We will pounce on them like tigers,” Thackeray said in an interview to party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
Thackeray also expressed staunch opposition to the movement for creating a separate Vidarbha state.
“If by any misfortune a Vidarbha state were to come into being, I can give it to you in writing that those who rule Vidarbha won’t be Marathi,” the Sena leader said.
Calling Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as an “Italian son,” Thackeray ridiculed the Congress leader’s travel in a local train during his visit to Mumbai in February. “The train was kept empty for Rahul,” he said.
Without naming his nephew Raj Thackeray or the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Thackeray said “People should decide whom to follow — those who came yesterday or those who have been with you all these years.” Others are mere carbon copy of Shiv Sena, he said.
-PTI