Mumbai: The upcoming Lok Sabha (LS) elections are a battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said Tuesday at his party meeting.

Slamming the BJP-led government, Mr Thackeray raised many questions such as was India in a position to fight with Pakistan when the Centre was ‘begging’ for money from the Reserve Bank of India.

He also said, “Nobody is ready to answer my questions. They do not have the answers to the questions that the country is asking and therefore, are indulging in gimmicks like 'chowkidar'. What happened to the promise of providing two crore jobs?”

Mr Thackeray, who has already announced that the MNS will not contest the upcoming LS elections, asked his party workers to get ready for the state Assembly polls later this year.

Criticising the BJP’s failed policies on the farmer crisis, he said, “Fourteen thousand farmers in the state have committed suicide since 2014. The PM Modi does not have time to meet their families.”

Mr Thackeray claimed that Mr Modi had shown a false picture of Gujarat’s development prior to the LS elections of 2014 , which earned him and the BJP
support.