By IANS,
Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday organised a rally on the first day of the Maharashtra assembly’s budget session to protest what it called “mafia rule” in the state.
Organised by the BJP as the culmination of its “Mafia Sarkar Hatao, Maharashtra Bachao Andolan”, the rally raised several issues including the Jaitapur nuclear power project, inflation, corruption and scams within the government.
Speaking at the rally at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, top BJP leaders – among them party president Nitin Gadkari and senior party leader Gopinath Munde, state party president Sudhir Mungantiwar, leaders of the Opposition in both houses Eknath Khadse and Pandurang Phundkar – openly criticised the government for several scams and rising inflation.
While Gadkari in his speech described the government as that of robbers, Munde criticised Home Minister R.R. Patil for the security lapses, which he said led to the burning alive of Malegaon’s additional district collector Yashwant Sonawane by kerosene mafia.