Digvijaya, Uddhav in war of words over Bihari origin

MUMBAI: The questions raised by Congress leader Digvijay Singh over the roots of the Thackeray family seem to have triggered a full-blown political row.

Reacting to Raj Thackeray's statements on migrants from Bihar, Singh recently said the Thackerays, too, were originally from that state. On Thursday, Shiv Sena CEO Uddhav Thackeray slammed Singh for his remark while addressing a public meeting in Mumbai. "Singh is raking up the issue to divert attention from the numerous scandals of the UPA government," he said.

Singh said he gathered the information from a book written by Prabodhankar Thackeray, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's father. Refuting this claim, the Sena CEO said: "The book was not on the Thackeray family. It was a social treatise."

Stating that Singh was "not in a proper frame of mind", he said it was time to examine the latter's antecedents. Uddhav alleged that Singh's forefathers had worked for the British. He also claimed that Singh had not been completely loyal to the Congress. The Sena leader referred to books while referring to Singh's antecedents.

Meanwhile, senior Congress minister Naseem Khan said there were reports in the media about the Thackerays' antecedents. "It is time they (Thackerays) look at their own backyard before spreading linguistic politics." He also hit out at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar over his statement that the Congress-led DF government was not reining in Raj. Khan said it was Nitish who sent his MLA to Thackeray before attending an event organized to celebrate Bihar Diwas in the city earlier this year.