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Calling Rahul Gandhi a warrior for standing up against the Modi government, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said "rulers in Delhi" are afraid of the Congress leader.
An editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana also said it was a good thing that Rahul Gandhi is becoming the Congress president.
"The rulers in Delhi fear Rahul Gandhi. Had it not been so, campaigns to discredit the Gandhi family would not have been carried out," the editorial said.
"A dictator is afraid even if one man is against him, and if this lone warrior is honest, the fear increases by a hundred times. The Delhi rulers' fear of Rahul Gandhi is in this category," editorial said.
It is a good thing that Rahul Gandhi is becoming the Congress president again, the Sena mouthpiece said. "One must accept that BJP has no alternative to Narendra Modi and Congress has no alternative to Rahul Gandhi, the Sena said.
"Despite propagating that Rahul Gandhi is a weak leader, he is still standing and attacking the government at every opportunity he gets," it said. The Opposition will, at some point, rise from the ashes like the Phoenix," it added.
Shiv Sena's praise for Rahul Gandhi comes a fortnight after Sena MP Sanjay Raut called for expanding the scope of the Congress-led UPA bloc, saying the Opposition should unite against the "dictatorial attitude" of the Centre and provide a "formidable alternative" to the Modi government.
Ahead of next month's Aurangabad Municipal Corporation elections, the Sena and Congress, partners in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra, have been at loggerheads over a demand to rename that city.
While the Sena wants Aurangabad renamed Sambhajinagar after a Maratha warrior, many state Congress leaders have opposed this move.