Mumbai: Showering praises on Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday said the ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ slogan truly suits the former prime minister as he was the only leader after Jawaharlal Nehru appreciated by people across the country.
Raut said the former prime minister played a pivotal role in the alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena.
“Atal Bihari Vajpayee played a pivotal role in cementing the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas’ line truly suits him,” he said responding to a question related to Vajpayee on the late BJP leader’s birth anniversary, PTI reported.
The Shiv Sena leader’s remark was apparently aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had assumed office in his first term in 2014 with the motto of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ (collective efforts, inclusive growth).
Raut said Vajpayee was the only second leader in India, who was appreciated across the nation after first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
“May it be Nagaland or Puducherry, there were people who respected Vajpayee,” he added.
Raut further said Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani were the two major pillars of the BJP, who helped the saffon party spread across the nation.
Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Modi led the nation in paying homage to Vajpayee on his 97th birth anniversary.
Several others, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh and BJP president J.P. Nadda, also paid floral tributes at ‘Sadaiv Atal’, the former prime minister’s memorial in the national capital.