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Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, who till now has been targeting people from UP and Bihar, on Wednesday widened his net when he attacked "Jains and Marwaris" on Wednesday.
 
"I came to know recently that to celebrate 200 years of Mahavir’s statue being brought in Mumbai, one of the Jains sent ’pooris’ and ’aam ras’ (mango pulp) to every Jain household in Mumbai. This when many parts of the state are undergoing drought, I am trying to find out who this person is," Raj said in a threatening tone.
 
Raj said that instead of distributing ’aam ras’ and ’pooris’ in Mumbai, the Jain community should have distributed water to the state’s drought-hit areas.
 
"These people use Maharashra to earn money and they can’t see the drought that is happening in the state? I don’t care if the media says that I have now begun targeting ’Marwaris’ after north Indians. They can say what they want, but I won’t tolerate such behavior," warned Raj.
 
The MNS chief was addressing party workers at a party function in Mumbai. He also used the opportunity to slam Congress general-secretary Rahul Gandhi’s recent trip to Maharashtra’s drought-hit areas, saying that nothing has been achieved by his visit. Raj also strongly castigated the state’s ruling party as well as opposition MLAs for going on foreign tours when the state was facing severe drought.
 
"Every year the MLAs go for foreign tours to Europe and other countries. It is called study tour, but no one knows what the MLAs are studying in foreign countries. Numerous study tours have been undertaken over the last few years, but the state has not asked its MLAs what have they studied abroad," Raj sarcastically said, adding that the MLA’s deliberately planned the study tours in May each year to escape the rising summer temperatures.
 
Thackeray added that since the government was not doing anything to resolve the situation, he exhorted his party cadres to distribute tanker water and provide fodder to the live stock of the farmers. "Farmers are being forced to kill their animals as they can’t feed them. I want every MNS worker to provide drinking water to the farmers and fodder for the livestock from tomorrow," he said.
 
Raj warned his cadres that he would be making surprise visits during the next one week to see how party functionaries are helping people in drought-hit areas.