India, June 28 -- Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, who began his three-day tour of the constituencies of his former MPs who recently defected to the ruling Shiv Sena, on Friday launched a scathing attack at Yavatmal-Washim on both its defector MP Sanjay Deshmukh and the BJP. Accompanying him on the tour were MPs Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant, MLA Aaditya Thackeray and other leaders.

In his rally speech, Thackeray declared sarcastically that the BJP, after "stealing MPs and MLAs" was now pilfering donations from the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Saying that Ram had been "politically captured" by the BJP, he added, "Ram is in the prison of the BJP. We need a BJP-mukt Ram, and our party will soon launch a movement for this."

The Sena (UBT)...