Shiv Sena slams Rahul Gandhi; says Congress VP trying to fill a balloon with holes

NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday targeted Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Saamna's editorial saying, "Rahul Gandhi's dream of poll victory is like filling gas in balloons with holes."

Further slamming the Congress party, Thackeray said, "It is hilarious that a party (Congress) which can't find candidates is claiming to win more than 200 seats." Stating that there is an 'anti-Congress wave in the country', Thackeray mocked, "No one wants a Congress ticket."

Thackeray also expressed confidence that the BJP-led NDA will win more than 275 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

On Monday, BJP leader Arun Jaitley termed Congress as a 'sinking ship', saying "Faced with odds, even senior leaders have decided to desert the sinking ship. Some are refusing to contest. Others are feigning ill health for not contesting."

Attacking Rahul Gandhi, he said, the Congress leader "has decided to talk up the morale of his party" in these difficult times.

"He claims that opinion polls are jokes and that the Congress would improve upon its 2009 tally. If this is sheer bravado in order to lift the sinking morale of the Congressman, it is understandable. However, if he genuinely believes this to be true then surely he is completely cut off from reality," Jaitley, who is BJP's candidate from Amritsar in Punjab, said.

He said several UPA partners, who had extended their support to the government in the past, are now distancing themselves from the Congress.