Head hangs in shame when I see current lot of Congress leaders: Uddhav Thackeray

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress party, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said that his head hangs in shame when he sees the current lot of Congress leaders.

"Congress leaders played an important role in the independence struggle and it was a major component in achieving independence. However, after seeing the current lot of Congress leaders, my head hangs in shame," Thackeray said addressing a public gathering here.

He said that former Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray used to say that they used to bow to the Congress leaders of his time.

Thackeray also attacked the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the state, saying it was joining hands with the Congress now.

"For years, Congress and NCP leaders earned a lot of illegal income. Now the Congress and NCP are joining forces and NCP chief Sharad Pawar is threatening to topple the government. The people of Maharashtra know how you toppled Vasantdada Patil's government and people of the country also know who did the same to Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government," Thackeray said.

Expressing displeasure over the Lok Sabha defeat in Aurangabad, which had been a Shiv Sena stronghold for long, he called for a saffron wave in the Assembly elections in the constituency.

Thackeray also slammed the Congress and NCP for promising to waive farm loans.

"Your government was in power in the state for years. Why didn't you waive farm loans then? We are going to relieve the farmer of their loans now. I do not know about farming, but the Shiv Sena will be wiping the tears of farmers in the state," he said.

The Shiv Sena leader also said that he is proud that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government scrapped Article 370 which conferred special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

"We welcome the Centre's decision to scrap Article 370. The government should bring in the Uniform Civil Code in Jammu and Kashmir," Thackeray added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena are contesting 162 and 126 seats, respectively, in the Maharashtra Assembly polls scheduled to be held on October 21.