I never asked Big B to leave Maharashtra: Raj

Mumbai, Apr 11: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray today said he had never asked Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan to leave the state.

Speaking at a function here, Raj, who is continuously in the news for the last three months for his diatribe against North Indians, said ''I had never asked Amitabh to leave Maharashtra.'' ''Who wants to throw a bottle at the residence of Mr Bachchan,'' he said. Bachchan, in a recent interview to a city-based tabloid, had stated that he would never leave the city where he has stayed for four decades. During some incidents recently bottles had been thrown at the residence of the superstar after the controversy against North Indians was raked up.

Raj had alleged that Bachchan had achieved name and fame in Mumbai, but was constructing a school in the name of his dauthter-in-law actress Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan in Uttar Pradesh.

The estranged nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray reiterated his stand for 80 per cent job reservation for the locals.

''If you cannot do this, then closed the Employment Exchange,'' he added.

UNI