By IANS
Mumbai : Activists of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) disrupted Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s press conference here Saturday, even exchanging blows with his party workers.
Workers of the MNS, the party floated by the estranged nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, masqueraded as journalists and entered into fisticuffs with Samajwadi Party workers as they took offence to some of Singh’s utterances.
Singh had allegedly slammed certain political parties for harbouring a bias against north Indians settled in Mumbai.
The incident occurred Saturday afternoon at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh premises in south Mumbai, barely two kilometres from Mantralaya, the state secretariat.
MNS workers later staged a demonstration outside the venue and at other places in the city, shouting slogans against Singh. They also burnt effigies of state Samajwadi Party president Abu Asim Azmi.
At the press conference, Singh also launched a scathing attack on the Maharashtra government and how, according to him, it had created a mess of affairs in the state.
He also criticised the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) coalition government, saying its policies catered only to the elite and not to the underprivileged sections of society, including farmers.
He said the government had promised free homes to people living in Mumbai slums but had not fulfilled these promises.
Singh also hit out at the state government for adopting a “soft stance” against some political parties that were creating a rift between Maharashtrians and other ethnic groups, including north Indians settled here.
MNS leaders, however, were unavailable for comment.
Raj Thackeray earlier this week courted controversy when at a public function he reportedly ridiculed people from north India, especially Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.