Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the AgustaWestland issue and for cornering Congress leader Sonia Gandhi ahead of the general elections. The Sena on Wednesday said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana that when alleged middleman Christian Michel was extradited from Dubai, elections to the Assemblies of five states were in progress and the BJP’s tail was on fire.

“Modi had spoken in a rally about this middleman and threatened to ma-ke explosive revelations and that he would not spare anybody. We now unde-rstand what was he hinting at that time,” the editorial read. The editorial als-o clarified that there is no question of affection for Mrs Gandhi and her party.

The Sena said that it was expected that Michel would take the name of Mrs Gandhi and her son as the Prime Minister had already given the indication. Before the probe begins, by pointing a finger at Mrs Gandhi, Mr Modi had drawn out the direction for the investigation. However, this was laughable. Despite bringing Michel to India, the Modi-led BJP has lost five states election, it read.

The Sena said amid the AgustaWestland happenings, BJP president Amit Shah and others got a clean chit in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh ‘fake encounter’ case as the CBI and other agencies had pleaded before the court that there was pressure on them to name big BJP leaders.

“If the government had not changed names they would have stayed in the list of the accused. The Congress today is making similar allegations that Michel has been pressurised to take the name of Sonia. It means that government machinery is under the control of two to four people. To settle scores with political opponents, agencies are being misused,” it read.