INDIA alliance rally a gathering of rejected and frustrated leaders without power: Shinde

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday dubbed the INDIA bloc rally held in Mumbai a day before as the gathering of leaders rejected by voters who are frustrated over not being in power.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday dubbed the INDIA bloc rally held in Mumbai a day before as the gathering of leaders rejected by voters who are frustrated over not being in power. Leaders of the INDIA grouping launched the poll campaign at the mega rally, a day after the schedule for the general elections was announced by the Election Commission.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, DMK's MK Stalin, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, PDP's Mehbooba Mufti, NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar among others attended the rally. ''The Sunday rally of INDIA bloc leaders was nothing but a gathering of people who were rejected by voters. Their frustration over not being in power was visible on their faces. How can such rejected people even claim to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power?'' asked Shinde while speaking to reporters. He said the Opposition bloc does not have any prime ministerial face against Narendra Modi.

''Their (Opposition leaders') hatred towards Modi was visible on their faces. This INDIA bloc is a political compromise that lacks confidence. You should have seen their faces when Rahul Gandhi was speaking,'' Shinde said.

He targeted Thackeray over his opening remarks while addressing the rally.

Thackeray had addressed the audience as his ''deshbhakt and deshpremi brothers and sisters'' instead of the traditional invocation of ''Hindu brothers and sisters''.

''As Thackeray joined hands with Congress, I had to rebel against him. Now, the pressure of the INDIA bloc is so much that he didn't even use the word Hindu in his speech,'' Shinde alleged. Thackeray on Monday defended his ''deshbhakt and deshpremi brothers and sisters'' invocation instead of the traditional ''my Hindu brothers and sisters''.

''BJP leaders criticised me over the opening sentence of my speech in the rally. But I want to ask them aren't they patriots?'' he said while addressing a rally in Vasmat in Hingoli district.

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