PUNE: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna published yesterday said that soon after the Gujarat communal riots, there was a huge demand in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to sack Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Thackeray said he spoke to BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani and urged him not to sack Modi. “It was me who saved Modi from being thrown out of power,” Thackeray claimed in the editorial.
He said that after the Gujarat riots he told senior BJP leaders, including Advani, that if Modi was sacked BJP would lose Gujarat. “Modi gone, Gujarat gone, this was my message to them,” he wrote.
Thackeray wrote that he failed to understand why comparisons were being made between the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan and Narendra Modi.
He said Mahajan was one of the best leaders and the BJP would never get one like Mahajan. “Whatever the BJP status is in Maharashtra today, it is solely due to the efforts and contributions of the late Pramod Mahajan,” he wrote.
“And if we speak about Modi, then it should be remembered that he rose to prominence only after becoming the chief minister of Gujarat. And his popularity increased fourfold due to his robust political innings and hard work, and no one can snatch this achievements of Modi,” Thackeray said.
