'I never asked Big B to leave'

After actor Amitabh Bachchan vowed not to leave Mumbai in the wake of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena campaign against him, party chief Raj Thackeray on Friday said that he had never asked the actor to leave Maharashtra.

Raj's remarks came in the wake of Bachchan's comments three days ago, stating that he was not an outsider in Mumbai and that he would not leave the city.

Raj was speaking at a function at Dinanath Mangeshkar Hall while addressing employees of an airlines.

Bachchan had said, "I am not leaving this city (Mumbai) and going anywhere. Let them chuck a thousand bottles. Let them burn my effigies. Let them attack me with stones and lathis or whatever is their arsenal. I will not budge".

The actor had made the remarks as he was hurt by the campaign that was unleashed by the MNS against him.

Raj had first launched an attack on Bachchan more than two months ago, when he said at a public rally that Bachchan was taking more interest in his native Uttar Pradesh than in Mumbai, which had made him a superstar.

Later, MNS also made fun of the actor in a poster, in which they called him a superstar farmer for having purchased farmlands.