Taking a fresh swipe against the North Indian population in the state, Shiv Sena on Monday alleged that their burgeoning population in the metropolis was adding to the travel woes of 'Marathi Manoos'

"It is an irony that the Marathi 'manoos' to whom Mumbai belongs, finds it hard to even enter the local train thanks to the North Indian commuters, who stand in the door blocking passage into the compartment. But broad-minded Maharashtrians tolerate all this," the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said on Monday in an editorial comment.

The paper decried the hue and cry raised over the mob lynching of Dharam Dev in a local train recently and said, "This episode had nothing to do with Marathi-Bihari divide as was projected by some elements. In Mumbai's local trains hundreds of such incidents take place daily and even Marathi people too get beaten up."

The paper also condemned the reported attack on a Marathi woman IAS officer named Ashvini Thakre in Poorniya district of Bihar and said not a single Bihari leader spoke against it.

It also criticised the reported refusal of Bihar Chief Miniser Nitish Kumar to attend an NDA Kisan rally organised in Haryana because Shiv Sena too had been invited for the same.

No Shiv Sena leader actually attended the rally called by Omprakash Chautala. But Nitish Kumar chose to make a political stunt, the editorial said.

"These pseudo secularists are comfortable in the company of Imam of Jama Masjid or Muslim league. But they hate the nationalist Shiv Sena," it alleged.

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