Navneet Rana again targets CM Thackeray, vows to uproot BMC's 'Lanka of Corruption'

Mumbai, May 8

After her stint in jail and hospital, independent MP Navneet Kaur-Rana on Sunday targeted Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, daring him to get "directly elected by the people".

Navneet, 36, challenged Thackeray to contest and win any seat of his choice in the state as she would stand against him in the upcoming elections.

She also announced plans to campaign for the ensuing BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation elections and uproot what she alleged was the 'Lanka of corruption' built by the Shiv Sena which is ruling it for over two decades.

"If chanting Hanuman Chalisa is a crime, then why only 14 days, I am ready to go to jail for 14 years," declared Navneet, who stepped out on bail after 12 days in jail and had to be admitted to a private hospital for treatment, where the BJP's Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis called on her on Saturday evening.

Navneet was referring to the arrest of her husband and herself on April 23 after they planned to go to the private residence of Thackeray in Bandra east and recite Hanuman Chalisa.

Though the Court had barred her from speaking to the media, she told mediapersons that she was allegedly ill-treated by the authorities at the Byculla Women Jail, forced to lie on a mat on the floor, and slammed the Sena and its leaders.

Referring to Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut, Navneet warned: "That 'Popat' (parrot) said in Nagpur that he would bury me 20 feet undergrounda Wait and see, with the Lanka of corruption they have erected in the BMC, the people of Mumbai and Maharashtra will dump them 20 feet below the earth."

Her husband and independent MLA from Badnera (Amravati) Ravi Rana, who was also granted bail last week, repeated the BJP's threats before media-persons that "Sanjay Raut and Minister Anil Parab will go to jail soon".

Pointing out that she is a Mumbaichi 'mulgi' (daughter of Mumbai as she was born here), Navneet promised to campaign in the BMC elections for like-minded parties to throw out the Shiv Sena and its corrupt rule from the country's biggest and richest civic body.

The MP-MLA couple also plan to visit New Delhi and complain against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to top BJP leaders and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.