The Shiv Sena attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday for his caustic remarks about corruption in the party-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, saying he was 'dancing to the tunes of the anti-Maharashtra lobby in New Delhi'.

"It's a cruel joke by the prime minister while he sits along with his colleagues Lalu Prasad Yadav and Shibu Soren, who themselves face corruption cases," Udhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena executive president said. 

He was reacting to Dr Singh's statement that the BMC should be free of land mafia and corruption. The body is ruled by Shiv Sena and its alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party and will go to polls early next year.

Udhav said the prime minister's statement was not keeping with his image and public standing. "Dr Singh is known as a knowledgeable, cultured leader but the language he used to criticise BMC on Wednesday was not his. He may have been used by someone to vent anguish," Udhav said.

The Congressmen know well that Sena will not allow Mumbai to be delinked from Maharashtra and that is why they have made BMC their target, he said.

According to Udhav, "The chief minister of Maharashtra should clarify who grabbed land in Behrampada (Bandra), Turbhe (Navi Mumbai) and prime airport land and which political party supports them."

If required, the Congress-led state government should take help of the military to free land grabbed by the mafia, Udhav said, alleging the state government had failed to free lands encroached by illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Mumbai.