Raj Thackeray Attacks "Outsider" Candidate In Pune Contest

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Friday asked why Chandrakant Patil, state minister and the BJP's candidate from Kothrud Assembly constituency in Pune, did not contest from his native Kolhapur.

Addressing a campaign rally for MNS's candidate Kishor Shinde in Kothrud, a Pune suburb, Mr Thackeray said the contest was between "an outsider" who had been foisted on voters and the one who belongs here.

"An outsider has been imposed upon you...you people have been taken for granted, thinking that they (BJP) can field any person from anywhere and people will elect him," said Mr Thackeray.

He could not understand why Mr Patil, who is a minister and hails from Kolhapur, did not contest from his native city, Mr Thackeray said.

"Why were you scared of contesting from Kolhapur," the MNS chief asked.

He also said that nowadays political parties field candidates after checking which community is dominant in a particular constituency.

"Such situation did not exist in Maharashtra 15 to 20 years ago," he said. 

The people of Kothrud will need to decide whether they need an outsider or a local person who will always be available, Mr Thackeray said.

Talking about the economic slowdown, Mr Thackeray said that former prime minister Manmohan Singh painted a grim picture of the situation on Thursday.

"I was alarmed when he said the slow-down has just started and Maharashtra will be affected the most as the industry will be hit," he said.

People are getting laid off in Pune's auto industry, the MNS chief claimed.

"Why is it happening? It is because of one person.

Because of the decision of demonetisation that he took, people had to stand in queues outside ATMs, lot of people died. I had then said that if this decision goes wrong, the country will be doomed, people will lose jobs, banks will get affected," Mr Thackeray said, targeting prime minister Narendra Modi.