Cousins find a link in Azmi Sena mouthpiece attacks SP leader who challenged Raj to prove B’deshi hand in Aug 11 riots

Cousins find a link in Azmi

Sena mouthpiece attacks SP leader who challenged Raj to prove B’deshi hand in Aug 11 riots

A day after Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray came out in support of his estranged cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, the Shiv Sena attacked Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abu Asim Azmi who had crossed swords with Raj over the August 11 Azad Maidan riots. After Raj claimed that Azmi won the assembly elections due to Bangladeshi voters, Azmi challenged him to prove the presence of one lakh Bangladeshis in his constituency in return for a Rs2 crore reward. An editorial on Friday in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna took on Azmi for his statements, even as a Shiv Sena MP admitted that such feelers indicated that the two warring Thackeray cousins were inching closer. “It is possible that they may come together after the (2014) elections,” he said. A Sena functionary too admitted that the bitterness between the two had reduced. “However, a pre-election alliance may cause seat sharing problems between the Shiv Sena, BJP and RPI,” he said, adding that a post- poll tie up seemed likely. “To whom are you showing this ego about your money? And from where did you get this money?” questioned the Saamna editorial heaping scorn on the SP MLA. It also criticised Azmi for his claim that the drug mafia was behind the Azad Maidan violence. “This… is going on because he does not want fundamentalist Muslims to be blamed for the riots in Mumbai,” it alleged, stating that no Nigerian faces had been seen during the violence. “Still Azmi is spreading rumours about the Nigerian drug mafia being involved. A crime needs to be registered for this rumour,” said the editorial. The editorial added that these migrants were vote banks for the Congress- NCP and Azmi and questioned why Azmi had not taken the culprits to task or turned them over to the police. “Fundamentalist Muslims were involved in the riots at Azad Maidan and Bangladeshis consisted of a large number in them,” said the editorial, adding that they were present in large numbers in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Bhiwandi. “However, even if the Bangladeshis are made into voters and citizens, how will they change their loyalties?” it questioned, adding that they had links with terror attacks.