Bal Thackeray backs Advani for calling the UPA government 'illegitimate'

Mumbai: Days after slamming senior BJP leader LK Advani for his controversial blog, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray today backed him on his recent comments which rocked the Parliament. Mr Advani had called the UPA an 'illegitimate' government and had to withdraw the offending word, conceding he had made a mistake.

"The word used by Advani is cent per cent the truth," Bal Thackeray said in his party mouthpiece, Saamna. "There was no need to withdraw it."

The crux of Mr Advani's speech on Wednesday was that illegal immigration, allegedly encouraged by the Congress for vote-bank politics, is to blame for the violence in Assam that has left more than 70 people dead in the last one month. "Bangladeshis in India should be deported and before that disenfranchised.  The PM and Home Minister should set a target for the government and share it with the House," Mr Advani said as he wound up his speech.

Mr Thackeray went a step further and said that in his opinion, the UPA-II was illegitimate as the government was using the CBI illegally.

He also agreed on BJP's views on the situation in Assam. He said, "The Congress considers Bangladeshis as a vote-bank and not as an enemy."

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Earlier, Mr Thackeray disagreed with Mr Advani's view that it's possible that a non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister heading a government supported by one of these two parties after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In an editorial in the party's magazine, the Shiv Sena supremo said Mr Advani's blog is inaccurate and demoralizing. He angrily offered to give Mr Advani "a dose of morale and strength."