Pune/Mumbai:Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray today joined estranged nephew Raj Thackeray in targetting actress and MP Jaya Bachchan for her alleged anti-Marathi utterances warning her not to provoke Maharashtrians even as her apology in this regard was rejected by Raj s party MNS.

Shah Rukh Khan was also sucked into the language row with Bal Thackeray training his guns on the Bollywood badshah on his Delhi origin after Jaya attempted to defuse the row.

"Shah Rukh says he is a Dilliwala. If you are from Delhi, then why have you come to Maharashtra", Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana .

"You come to Maharashtra to earn fame and wealth but once you have had your fill, then you will evoke the name of the region from where you came from. And Marathi people are expected not to utter a word in their own state", the Sena mouthpiece said.

In a sharp reaction to Jaya Bachchan s "contemptuous" remarks on Marathi, Bal Thackeray said it was Mumbai that gave identity to the Bachchans bestowing fame when they were an "unknown commodity".

"With folded hands, I am once again appealing to these people that do not provoke us unnecessarily. If you rub us the wrong way and try to test our response, you will be on the run," Thackeray said, adding Samaznewaleko Ishara Kafi Hai (The message is clear for the prudent).

The MNS meanwhile rejected Jaya s apology published in a Mumbai daily today and demanded a public apology on camera for her anti-Marathi remarks.

"We cannot accept the apology expressed to an English paper. She should speak in front of the entire media, especially the regional," MNS leader Shishir Shinde told PTI.

In an attempt to defuse the language row, Jaya in her her apology said she had no intention to hurt the sentiments of Marathi people.
Source : PTI