 "NCP Chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai")
A day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray single-handedly attacked the entire top leadership of the Nationalist Congress Party, party supremo Sharad Pawar on Wednesday contemptuously termed his utterances as "juvenile".
Raj Thackeray, attempted to drive a wedge among the Pawars - Sharad Pawar, his daughter and MP Supriya Sule, and nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar - besides making personal attacks against senior Minister Dr Jitendra Awhad and others.
In his 'NCP Special' rally late on Tuesday, Raj Thackeray - the estranged cousin of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray - compared Supriya Sule with an elephant, saying that she had different teeth to show (tusks) and to chew.
"When there is a raid (by the Income Tax Department) on Ajit Pawar, then why not on Supriya Sule," he wondered, and even blamed the raids on NCP Minister Nawab Malik on the Pawars.
Pawar is a Rajya Sabha MP, Supriya Sule is Lok Sabha MP from Baramati, and Ajit Pawar is MLA from Baramati Assembly constituency, in Pune district.
Responding to this, a visibly irritated Pawar said: "Whatever he uttered was childish... Why should we even talk about it? If anything happens to the Ajit Pawar family, then it happens to me... are we different? Supriya and Ajit are cousins. Is this a political statement? It's a juvenile allegation."
Supriya Sule said: "What to say about a person who had hurt (the late) Balasaheb Thackeray" and said he was living in the past, basking in the reflected glory of his uncle and founder of Shiv Sena.
Ajit Pawar flatly said that Raj Thackeray must not be given so much importance and "I will reply to him at the appropriate time... I have the answers for all his questions."
Raj Thackeray's unbridled statements at the public meeting lampooning the NCP leadership evoked sharp reactions from all the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies including the Shiv Sena and Congress with many saying he was best suited to be a "stand up comedian".
--IANS
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