Shiv Sena offers eternal support if BJP waives off farmers' loans in Maharashtra

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday questioned why BJP, which has promised to waive off farmers' loans in Uttar Pradesh if it came to power, was not doing the same in Maharashtra, despite running the government.

"If (chief minister) Devendra Fadnavis waives off farmers' loans here, I will assure him my party's full support forever," Thackeray told a rally in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

"BJP knows it will not co me to power in UP. Despite this, they have included humbug in their manifesto, promising to waive off farmers' loans and saying future loans will be interest-free. I'm saying the same thing. You will do this if you come to power in UP. Here, in Maharashtra, you have your government.We are with you. Why don't you immediately waive off farmers' loans? Who has stopped you from doing this?" Thackeray asked.


A Sena delegation had recently met Fadnavis at his residence and demanded a loan waiver for farmers. Political circles are abuzz that Sena may take a call to withdraw support to the government by raising the loan waiver issue before the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

Sena has been maintaining an aggressive stance against BJP for some time now, with Thackeray threatening to withdraw support to the state government if the senior partner did not clear its stand on issues his party had raised.

Thackeray went a step further on Sunday, threatening to sever ties with BJP and spoke of the likelihood of a mid-term poll in the state. But BJP ridiculed the warning, saying not even Sena MLAs wanted assembly elections now. The party said it had Plan B in place should Sena ministers in the government resign. Thackeray also lashed out at Narendra Modi's "raincoat" jibe at Manmohan Singh and asked the PM to show "decency" in Parliament.

He had earlier said the Modi wave was on the wane. He announced that BJP-baiter Hardik Patel could be the face of the Sena-Patel alliance in the Gujarat assembly polls.

A few days back, Sena mouthpiece `Saamna' put out an editorial which lauded the Congress reign in the country for 60 years, hailed Indira Gandhi for breaking Pakistan into two in the 1971 war and praised Rajiv Gandhi for bringing in the telecommunication age. It asked what changes Modi had brought about in the country.

Fadnavis sought to counter the Sena attack by saying the party had done nothing for Marathi people despite being in control of BMC.

FIRs against MNS corporator, Sena man Dahisar police registered FIRs against MNS corporator from Dahisar Prakash Darekar and Shiv Sena party worker Suresh Mahadik on Monday. Both had a fight over building a stage that was blocking traffic at 2pm. Mahadik told Darekar to build the stage on one side.

"Darekar lost his temper and had an argument with Mahadik which turned violent. Mahadik was later taken to the police station to record his statement when he fell unconscious," police said.