Sena will continue to support farmers' agitations: Uddhav

The Shiv Sena will continue to support farmers' agitations, party chief Uddhav Thackeray said Saturday.

Thackeray was addressing a rally in Hatkanangale in support of party candidate Dhairyasheel Mane, who is pitted against Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana's sitting MP Raju Shetti.

The SSS is now aligned with the Congress-NCP combine in the state.

The Sena chief said the ongoing Lok Sabha elections was to solve the problems of farmers and claimed they had no leader for the past several years.

Thackeray added he was not a leader of farmers but a friend and that he would stand shoulder to shoulder with them till the last breath of his life.

"I am sure Dhairyasheel Mane will go to the Lok Sabha. I want to see a smile on the face of farmers. Not just Maharashtra, but the whole country should be proud of the state's farmers. I am satisfied the Shiv Sena kept supporting farmers when they were committing suicide due to debts and from worries about their children's weddings," he said.

"The Sena had conducted mass weddings for children of farmers in the name of late Sena patriarch Balasaheb Thackeray ... the Sena will continue to publicly support farmers in their agitations," he added.