File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Agence France-Presse)
The Shiv Sena today denied that its leader and Mumbai Mayor Snehal Ambekar had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Adolf Hitler.
Ms Ambekar, 43, has been quoted as saying in an interview with the Afternoon Despatch & Courier: "I even admire Narendra Modi for his self-reliant way of working. But at some level, I feel his rule is quite like Hitler-shaahi...This is bound to happen when power is concentrated in the hands of one man."
Ms Ambekar, a former insurance officer, is a first-time municipal councilor. She was elected as the city's seventh woman mayor in September 2014.
She has been in the limelight for some time for seeking a red beacon for her vehicle, claiming that her position in the city is similar to that of the chief minister.
"The mayor has constant emergencies, as well as we go to receive VVIPs as representatives of the masses. If a chief minister has red beacon, a mayor's status is pretty similar in terms of a city. I believe there is nothing wrong for a mayor in using a red beacon fitted car," she said in the interview.
Her reported comments add to the series of barbs directed at the BJP by the Shiv Sena, its oldest ally. The long-time partners have had a turbulent alliance since they split just before the Maharashtra polls last year over seat-sharing and then got back together to take power in the state.
In its latest attack, the Sena has criticized the BJP for not calling any meeting of the NDA alliance in the past 14 months.