"Sonia Gandhi had yesterday said in Haryana that BJP only talks and does not work. But I want to ask her, what work has her party done for the country and Maharashtra in ten years while they were in power that people should vote for it now," Union Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad said while speaking to reporters here.
An average of 3,700 farmers commit suicide in Maharashtra every year, he said and asked, "What happened to the Rs 11,000 crore package that the Manmohan Singh government announced for Maharashtra? Did that money reach the people."
Reacting to Sharad Pawar's recent attack that BJP had termed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj a 'looter' and were now invoking the warrior king to seek votes, Prasad said, "A peculiar competition to uphold the legacy of Maratha warrior Shivaji is going on in the state, which is nothing but a farce, meant to divert the minds of the voters."
"It was during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that the Mumbai airport was named after Chhatrapati Shivaji. The Vajpayee government had also issued a coin in honour of King Shivaji," he added.
Listing out the goodies offered to Maharashtra during the budget, Prasad said, "We were the ones to offer AIIMS to the Vidarbha region. We have also proposed to set up an IIM in Maharashtra and also announced the Mumbai-Bengaluru economic corridor. We have also announced a metro rail in Nagpur. This is our commitment towards Maharashtra.
