I have forgiven Saamana for writing against me:Gadkari

Mumbai, Oct 9 (UNI) Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who had become the target of 'vitrolic' attacks in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' today said that he has no complaints about the issue as it was done without any proper information and he has forgiven the same.

A few days before, Mr Gadkari was described in Samana as the 'killer of the alliance' and late Pramod Mahajan as the architect of the alliance over the controversy of claiming Chimur seat in the by elections. Mr Gadkari was also criticised in samana editorial which also described Mr Gadkari's 'adament behaviour' as ''shocking''.

''I was hurt by the writing of Saamana which they had done due to the wrong information but since it was all in the family, I have forgiven them with a big heart'', Mr Gadkari told reporters here today.

He said he would call on Shiv Sena Chief Balasaheb Thackeray, senior Sena leader Manohar Joshi and Executive President Uddhav Thackeray.

''We respect Balasaheb on par with Mr L K Advani and Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee'', Mr Gadkari said.

He revealed that he did not attend the meeting at Mr Thackeray's residence on October 6 alongwith senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde as he was preoccupied with a meeting at Nagpur.

''But Mr Munde was giving me the update and the developments of the meeting on phone after every ten minutes'' he added.

He denied that his resignation was sought on the 'Chimur' controversy and added that he was also in touch with BJP president Rajnath Singh on this issue.

Mr Gadkari said he never talked of breaking the alliance and added that Mr Singh also told Mr Uddhav Thackeray that Mr Gadkari could never talk of breaking the alliance.

He also denied that the controversy over Chimur took place to get the coveted post of the Leader of Opposition. It may be mentioned that in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly of 288, the Sena has got 56 seats while BJP 54.

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