Is Shiv Sena leadership hobnobbing with Cong brass? asks Prem Shukla

Prem Shukla

Nashik: Former journalist and BJP spokesperson Prem Shukla Sunday wondered if the Shiv Sena is "hobnobbing" with top Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, whom the party patriarch late Bal Thackeray wanted to oust from politics for "looting" the country.

Addressing reporters here, Shukla, who had served as the editor of the Sena's Hindi tabloid "Dophar Ka Saamana" before joining the BJP in 2016, said the "panchak" or quintet of the leaders also comprised Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, her husband Robert Vadra and Ahmad Patel, Treasurer of the Congress. Shukla's remarks came amid uncertainty over prospects of an alliance between the Sena and the BJP for upcoming Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly elections, and amid growing perception that the Uddhav Thackeray-led party is going soft on the Congress chief while criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi relentlessly.

"I clearly recall Balasaheb Thackeray's last speech at Sena's 'Viajayadashmi' rally at Shivaji Park in 2012 wherein he had said that this 'Panchak' (the gang of five) which has ruined the life of the common people and looted the country, needs to be ousted from politics. "I fail to understand why the party (Sena) wants to bring them back....", the BJP national spokesperson said while replying to a query whether Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was warming up to Congress ahead of elections.

The Sena had last year announced that it would contest future elections on its own. Listing out achievements of Modi government, Shukla said the country has listed a "quantum jump" in every field in the last four-and-a-half years of BJP rule. "Now PM Modiji has ensured that each 'paisa' of a Rupee reaches the intended beneficiaries unlike during the erstwhile tenure of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who had himself admitted that when one rupee is released from Delhi, only 10 'paisa' reaches to the targeted persons," Shukla said. He said the Central government is executing 129 welfare schemes in different part of the country.

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