India, May 2 -- Amid speculations about the Thackeray cousins - Uddhav and Raj Thackeray - coming together, state NCP (SP) president Jayant Patil on Thursday urged people in the state to come together to protect Mumbai, Maharashatra and Marathi.

In an open letter addressed to the people on the occasion of the state's foundation day, Patil said though Maharashtra had performed well in the past in fields like economy, society, culture, industry and education, it had been lagging behind for some time.

"Women are sexually assaulted, people are losing their lives for drinking water, farmers are committing suicide and ruling parties are advocating Hindi, humiliating Marathi. If our own people (ruling parties) are cutting deals at the cost of ...