M A I N   N E W S

Cong, Sena trade barbs over Sachin
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service

This is the dirtiest play of the Congress.... the real Dirty Picture. He could have been Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar. Now he will be just Sachin Tendulkar, MP. — Shiv Sena supremo

Mumbai, April 29
The Shiv Sena and the Congress today traded insults over the nomination of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to the Rajya Sabha.

At a function to felicitate him here, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray called the nomination of Tendulkar as "the real Dirty Picture".

"This is the dirtiest play of the Congress....the real Dirty Picture," Thackeray said.

Earlier, Thackeray writing in party mouthpiece Saamna said the Congress was cheating Tendulkar. "He could have been Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar. Now he will be just Sachin Tendulkar, MP," the write-up said.

Thackeray's comments drew angry remarks from the Congress. Party spokesman Sachin Sawant demanded the logic behind the Shiv Sena

nominating industrialist Venugopal Dhoot to the upper house of Parliament. "If Thackeray says nominating Sachin to Rajya Sabha is

like ‘Dirty Picture', then was nominating Dhoot a case of ‘Apna Sapna Money Money?," Sawant asked.

The Sena chief, however, added that he was proud of Tendulkar.

"I feel proud of Sachin. Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Hema Malini, (too), went to the Rajya Sabha. But before going there, one should know whether he has a scope there", he said.