Despite ideological differences, Cong has highest respect for Balasaheb Thackeray: Priyanka Gandhi

Ahmednagar/Kolhapur (Maharashtra): Scotching all speculations among allies, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday declared that despite the party’s ideological differences with the (undivided) Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, the Congress has always held him in the highest esteem.

Addressing rallies for the Maharashtra Assembly elections in Ahmednagar (Shirdi) and Kolhapur on Saturday, Priyanka Gandhi gave her response to the demands made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in this regard.

Both PM Modi and Shah had dared the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (SP) to see if they could make Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi laud the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

“Even though the ideologies of the Shiv Sena and Congress are different, our political views were at variance, but we have always had the utmost regards for Balasaheb Thackeray…” Priyanka Gandhi declared amid thunderous rounds of applause.

She also issued a counter-challenge to both PM Modi and Shah that they should announce from an open public platform that they will conduct a Caste Census in the country and remove the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations, as assured by Rahul Gandhi.

Priyanka Gandhi made it clear that while they had veneration for Balasaheb Thackeray, “the Congress will not tolerate any insults to the great icon of the state, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who are referred to with disrespect by the Bharatiya Janata Party people”.

“He is like our deity, and worshipped all over the country… But the PM and his colleagues utter his name without due respect. The PM had performed a ‘jal-puja’ for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial in the Arabian Sea seven years ago (December 2016), but there is no sign of that monument till now,” thundered Priyanka Gandhi.

She further accused the PM of removing a statue of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from the Parliament premises, while a figurine of the great Maratha warrior unveiled by PM Modi crashed in just eight months in Sindhudurg district (August 26).

Training guns on the BJP leaders for accusations that Rahul Gandhi is anti-reservation, the AICC General Secretary said that her brother is waging a big fight to save the Constitution given to the country by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, and trying to preserve Democracy.

“Rahul Gandhi walked the length and breadth of India through the Bharat Jodo Yatras, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and Manipur to Mumbai. Modi and Shah are scared of Rahul Gandhi that’s why they are targeting him with falsehoods from this holy land of saints,” retorted Priyanka Gandhi.

Accusing the BJP government of playing favourites, she pointed out that while Modi talks about strengthening Maharashtra, all big investments, mega-projects and major institutions are being diverted to other states, which has deprived this state of progress and jobs.

Referring to her great-grandfather, the first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, Priyanka Gandhi said that he never discriminated while setting up institutions, dams, elite education institutions like IITs/IIMs in various states or giving big projects.

“The farmers, women and youth in Maharashtra are grappling with a crisis because of the policies of the BJP government… Modi had forgotten women in the past 10 years and has suddenly started making false promises before the elections. The people of the state want answers and the BJP will have to give them,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Priyanka Gandhi visited the world-famed Shri Saibaba Temple for ‘darshan’, offered prayers and partook of the prasad there.

She started her speech with the chants of ‘Jai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’, ‘Jai Bhavani’, and ‘Jai Shirdi Saibaba’, mentioned the names of great legends like Sant Gadge Baba Maharaj and Sant Tukaram Maharaj while reciting a couplet of a bhajan penned by the latter.

Priyanka Gandhi was joined by Congress Legislative Party Leader Balasaheb Thorat, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Bhausaheb Rajaram Wakchaure, Shirdi candidate Pratibha Ghogre, local leaders like Jayashree Thorat, Jayantrao Wagh, Kiran Kale and others.