Thane: Srinivas Wanga, son of late BJP MP Chintaman Wanga, who is contesting the bypolls from Palghar on a Shiv Sena ticket and facing a tough battle with official BJP nominee Rajendra Gavit, indicated that BJP and its leaders were silent killers of his father.
Addressing an election rally, he said BJP was making all-out efforts to defeat him in the polls and sabotage the election itself by all means.
Wanga narrated the manner, in which his family was totally side-tracked by the BJP and its leaders, simply because his father, who had given his blood for the party, opposed the misdeeds of the party leaders over their projects, which would ruin the lives of the tribals.
According to Wanga, ''My Baba died in Delhi and his body was lying at the hospital, but I did not have any money. Somehow, I reached Delhi and after a long time, got the body, which was brought in the cargo plane.
"At the Mumbai airport, we were made to wait for hours before the body was released. If this is the treatment to the ruling party MP, then one can guess what will be the fate of the common man," he said.
An emotional Wanga with tears rolling down his cheek said, ''I did some farming and sold the vegetables to pay off for the trip to Delhi.'' He declared that the ruling party and its leaders had not at all helped the family in any manner. None of the leaders paid a visit to the family members to enquire about them, even after three months of his father's death.
"We do not want any money, I did not want to contest the polls at all. We only needed some care and love, which I got from the Shiv Sena. Sena President Uddhavji and the Sainiks treated me as one of their family members,'' he said.
At every stage, he and his father were prevented from doing their work by BJP leaders, the Sena leader alleged, adding that they wanted to see their downfall. Mr Wanga said he wanted to finish the incomplete work of his father and hence, was in the fray.
In fact, the condolence meeting of senior Wanga was totally sabotaged and failed by certain local groups, which wanted that it should not get any importance. This had been admitted by a senior BJP leader at the meeting itself, he noted.
"All the projects which were put forth by my father were failed in a manner by the party noses and none of them were seen through. He was opposed to all the projects, which were to raze the tribals.
He could not see the much-talked-about Dahanu Nashik rail link, for which he struggled for several years as an MP and even took to agitation and fast.
''The only thing that materialized was the bifurcation of Thane district into two, but even now, people of Jawhar and Mokhada suffer as the headquarters is Palghar,'' he added.
Senior Wanga was constantly chided and humiliated by a section of local leaders, but he did not care and remained unhindered, even when he did not get any support from higher-ups, the Sena leader alleged.
An MP who just survived on his farm and his wife selling vegetables, met the same fate as an unsung hero, while the party is not at all bothered for the same, Mr Wanga noted.
