Uddhav Thackeray’s take on Narendra Modi’s victory

Mumbai, 21 December 2012

The Shiv Sena executive president today said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna that Modi had more or less repeated his past performance. Following are Thackeray’s observations in the article:

-Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and other top Congress leaders called Modi all kinds of names. Even the CBI was used to contain Modi. All NGOs painted Modi as a villain at the international level, but it was all in vain.

-The Gujarat Parivartan Party, headed by former chief minister Keshubhai Patel also tried to contain Modi but failed.

-By the end of the day on Thursday, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chief Arjun Modwadia had to quit. Even Leader of Opposition in the outgoing house S.S. Gohil had to bite the dust of defeat.

-After Modi’s resounding third straight win over Gujarat, the Congress could not even celebrate its own victory in Himachal Pradesh, which it wrested from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

-Actually, the Congress campaigned against Modi as a prospective prime ministerial candidate, rather than targetting the BJP. Now, Modi is knocking on the doors of Delhi.

-Modi has won the hearts of the people first, and then the elections.

-He has dedicated his victory to the people of Gujarat and vowed to work for them for the next five years. As long as he understands the plight of the common man and continues in the same vein, Modi will continue to blacken the faces of the people with black money.

-The manner in which Modi displayed humility by touching rival Keshubhai Patel’s feet “raised his stature even more; and in the long run, it could benefit the BJP.