Biharis are unwanted lot: Bal Thackeray

Mumbai, Mar 5: Keen to recapture the Shiv Sena key vote plank of Maharashtra for Marathis only, party supreme Bal Thackeray today described Biharis as an 'unwanted lot' in all parts of the country. "They are not wanted in southern India, Assam and also Punjab and Chandigarh. The Biharis have antagonised local populations wherever they have settled. The Uttar Pradesh and Bihari MPs have shown their ingratitude towards Mumbai and Maharashtra with an anti-Marathi tirade in Parliament," Thackeray wrote in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Samana. The 'Bihari' leaders, accusing the people of Mumbai of harbouring anti-national sentiments, are trying to stir again the fire of anti-north Indian feelings in Maharashtra and should realise that the exercise would only put their brethren in Maharashtra at the receiving end, Thackeray added. MPs from Bihar and UP had raised the issue of the anti-north Indian stand of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, that led to wide spread violence in Maharashtra.

The arrest of Raj Thackeray following his anti-north Indian sentiments in February had put the Shiv Sena in a difficult spot as the breakaway faction led by the nephew of the Sena chief appeared to be drawing political mileage in the state at the cost of the parent party. Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray recently asserted that it was only his party that was wedded to the cause of Marathis and nobody else. Referring to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's challenge that he would perform this year's Chhat Puja in Mumbai, Bal Thackeray said: "Those who have turned Bihar into hell, should not try teach nationalism to Mumbai and Maharashtra."

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Police has served a show cause notice on Raj Thackeray asking him to explain why a gag order enforced on him following the party's anti-north Indian agitation should not be extended. The MNS leader was in Pune when the notice was served at his Mumbai residence on Tuesday.

ANI