BJP to rebut Raj's allegations on last day of campaigning

To counter MNS chief Raj Thackeray's campaign against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the saffron party would be rebutting his allegations on April 27, it said Wednesday.

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 defensive in the state.

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.

In his last rally in Mumbai, Thackeray claimed that a pro-BJP Facebook page used the photograph of a family without its permission to laud the housing scheme of the union government. He even produced the family on stage.

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.

"We will reply to all the charges with evidence. We will do a presentation at the rally to expose Raj Thackeray, in his own style with video clips and other evidence," Tawde added.