Sena targets Lalu; takes credit for disruptin

Pune: While the nation debates whether the breakaway Maharashtra Navnirmaan Sena (MNS) has only sharpened the agenda of its predecessor Shiv Sena, the latter has tried to claim its turf.

The Shiv Sena has used its mouthpiece daily, the Saamana to lay claim to being the guards of Marathi rights.

The SS stand comes in the face of an aggressive one on the issue by MNS chief Raj Thackeray who is hogging limelight.

In its daily on Wednesday October 22, the SS sought to take credit for thwarting the scheduled Railway exams in Mumbai, saying they were arranged "exclusively" for Biharis.

The debate about who speaks louder for the Marathi cause is an inconclusive one, but the Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece Saamana says the Marathi 'manoos' issue was always historically taken up only by the Shiv Sena.

An editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana', which flayed Railway Minister Lalu Prasad for his "anti-Maharashtrian" stand in recruitment in Railways, played down the role of MNS in jolting the exam. It said the recruitment of "bhaiyyas" was stopped by Shiv Sainiks who agitated at the exam centres in Mumbai.

MNS workers too arrived waving their flags but it was the valour of Shiv Sainiks that finally clinched the issue leading to cancellation of the exams, the editorial claimed.

The article says that while Maharashtra Navnirman Sena aggressively pushes for job opportunities for Maharashtrians on their home turf, it has merely usurped the Shiv Sena's core project.

In a departure from its earlier assertion that Shiv Sainiks too had bashed up the candidates from north India at railway stations in the metropolis on October 19, the paper said the MNS workers were responsible for the attack on Biharis asleep on railway platforms.

It also carried a statement by Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray saying that the Sainiks would never resort to a cowardly attack on people in their sleep.

Lambasting the Railway Minister, Saamana said, "The Railway Board exams for recruitment covered only the Yadavs coming from Bihar and nobody from other states, including Uttar Pradesh."

Saamana also mentions Tuesday's debate in Parliament takes a shot at north Indians and in particular Railway Minister Lalu Prasad. It says that the Yadavs only know how to eat paan and spit.

(With inputs from CNN-IBN and PTI)

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