The Hindu : National : Shiv Sena miffed at sea link naming

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Shiv Sena miffed at sea link naming

Siddhesh Inamdar

Mumbai: Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said his party would not accept the naming of the Bandra-Worli sea link after Rajiv Gandhi.

In a statement, Mr. Thackeray said the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government had betrayed Maharashtra by not naming the sea link after State leaders like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Though Savarkar was not born in Mumbai like Rajiv Gandhi, his contributions to Maharashtra and India were enormous. If not Savarkar, the bridge could have been named after any other social leader like Jyotirao Phule or Babasaheb Ambedkar, or a martyr like Babu Genu, Mr. Thackeray said.

Mr. Thackeray alleged that NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Ashok Chavan routinely used Phule and Ambedkar only for political gains.

He wondered how they had forgotten the leaders at the time of the inauguration.

On Tuesday, during the inauguration of the sea link by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Pawar had suggested that the engineering marvel be named after the former Prime Minister.

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