If He Can Elbow His Party Member, What Will He do With Public?: Modi’s Veiled Attack on Sharad Pawar

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took a jibe at NCP president Sharad Pawar, whose video of allegedly elbowing a party member out of the frame when he was being garlanded, went viral recently.

Without naming Pawar, PM Modi said he was shocked to see the leader getting angry and hitting a fellow party member with his elbow.

“I was shocked to see a video in which a prominent leader, who has been on television and newspapers for years, got angry and hit a man with his elbow. The man was standing next to the leader on stage and when the latter was being garlanded, the man tried to put his head in the garland (in what seemed like an attempt to be part of the photos that were being clicked),” the PM said at an election rally in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon.

Modi is campaigning in poll-bound Maharashtra to seek a fresh term for the BJP-led government in the state. He will be holding several rallies in the state.

In alliance with Shiv Sena, BJP confident of trumping the Congress, which has been plagued by infighting and fractures due to conflict between Sonia Gandhi’s loyalists and Rahul Gandhi’s young turks.

“I am happy that we have got an opportunity to contribute and take Maharashtra forward. It gives us great satisfaction to see women taking leaps of progress. We have already given 10 lakh houses to the women in the state and within the next year will give 10 lakh more houses,” PM modi said, asking for a second term for the Devendra Fadnavis government.

“Even the Opposition is shocked with the amount of work we have done in the last five years,” he added.

The assembly election in Maharashtra is scheduled to be held on October 21 and the counting will be held on October 24.

The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena coalition, which also includes other small parties, is in direct contest with the Congress-NCP alliance.