PUNE: PM Narendra Modi's “bhatakti aatma” barb alluding to Sharad Pawar at successive campaign rallies in Maharashtra led the NCP (SP) chief to declare on Tuesday that he was “indeed a restless soul seeking to alleviate the pain of distressed farmers and citizens struggling to cope with high inflation”.
“This aatma will show restlessness 100 times, if necessary, to raise the concerns of common citizens,” Pawar said at a rally for NCP (SP) candidate Amol Kolhe in Junnar tehsil of Pune district. Pawar told a news agency in Pune later that he would ask the PM at the first opportunity who he was referring to as a “bhatakti aatma” and what the purpose of that remark was.
As deputy CM Ajit Pawar looked on during a rally in Pune on Monday, Modi referred to a ‘bhatakti aatma’ with unfulfilled dreams triggering political instability and sparing not even his family members. Pawar retorted that the PM’s jibe sounded strange coming from someone who once said he came to politics “holding my finger”.
State NCP (SP) president Jayant Patil said at a rally in Baramati that Modi would realise the outcome of mocking “Maharashtracha aatma” (soul of Maharashtra) on the day votes are counted.
Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut called the PM an “atrupt aatma (dissatisfied soul) from Gujarat wandering in Maharashtra to destroy the state”.
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