Bharat Ratna given to Karpoori Thakur for Bihar votes in Lok Sabha polls, claims Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: The Narendra Modi government has conferred Bharat Ratna on former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur to get votes from the eastern state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday. Addressing a gathering of Shiv Sena workers here, Thackeray claimed the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was the forerunner of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had opposed Thakur's decision to give 26 per cent reservation to backward classes in government jobs.

"But now the BJP wants votes in the Lok Sabha polls from Bihar so announced the Bharat Ratna for him posthumously. I am happy his (Thakur's) work is being acknowledged after so many years," Thackeray said.

The BJP announced Dr S Swaminathan's name for the Bharat Ratna but has failed to implement the recommendation made by a commission headed by him on increasing farm income, Thackeray further said.

People can see through this hollowness, Thackeray claimed.

The Union government announced five names for the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, this year.

They are former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, agriculture scientist and father of India's food revolution Dr S Swaminathan, Karpoori Thakur, a champion of backward empowerment, and BJP stalwart L K Advani.

At five, one more than the four announced in 1999, this is the maximum number of Bharat Ratnas announced for a year.