Miffed with MNS chief Raj Thackeray's fiery speeches against the BJP government, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis rubbished his claims saying, Raj and Congress's Rahul Gandhi are mere entertainers. The CM said that Thackeray showed misleading videos to portray Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bad light but his folly was exposed. Addressing an election rally at Bhagatsingh Ground in Kaalaa Chowki, Fadnavis said that the Congress and NCP are hiring 'railway engine' to fight these elections. Fadnavis said that Thackeray brought a poor family to prove the PM wrong but they are relatives of MNS party workers. Thackeray, whose own party is not contesting the Lok Sabha elections, is appealing people not to vote for the Shiv Sena-BJP combine through his rallies. His effective mix of oratory and audio-visual presentation to contradict the Modi government's claims have put the BJP on the defensive in the state. The CM said that Ambani had endorsed Milind Deora in 2014 as well but Sawant had won. State minister and BJP leader Vinod Tawde said the party will come out with its own videos to expose Thackeray. "There will be a special programme on April 27, the last day of campaigning (in Maharashtra) where we will expose Raj Thackeray. His party is not even contesting elections but they have managed to organise several rallies targeting the BJP alone. We must expose it," Tawde said. Thackeray has so far addressed seven rallies across Maharashtra, hitting out at the BJP-led government using videos, statistics, archived newspaper clippings and journalistic research. Tawde, however, claimed that the Facebook page which Thackeray referred to was not the official page of the BJP or Modi or the Prime Minister's Office. "Sambuddha Mitra Mustafi had interviewed one Chile family and wrote an article in the New York Times in 2013. The article was about how a middle-class family prospered in Mumbai," he said. "The same photo has been carried in a web page known as 'Pakistan Defense'. I do not understand what is the connection between Raj Thackeray and Pakistan," he said. Fadnavis criticised Congress for the Garibi Hatao slogan and doing nothing for the last 70 years. Fadnavis said that PM Modi had shown it to the world that India can retaliate and give Pakistan befitting reply. — With Agency Inputs

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