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HomePoliticsMNS claims nephew Raj Thackeray is ‘true heir’ of Balasaheb in poster...

MNS claims nephew Raj Thackeray is ‘true heir’ of Balasaheb in poster outside Shiv Sena office

MNS claimed Maharashtra CM and Balasaheb's son Uddhav Thackeray was banning Hindus from reciting Hanuman Chalisa prayers.

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Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena upped its attack on Shiv Sena and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Wednesday by proclaiming its chief Raj Thackeray was the “true heir” of late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray.

The party put up a banner outside the Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar accusing Uddhav Thackeray of removing loudspeakers put up by Hindus.

Addressed to Bal Thackeray, the banner said, “See, your son CM Uddhav Thackeray, despite being a Hindu, is asking us to remove loudspeakers put up by Hindus. He is banning us from reciting Hanuman Chalisa.”

“If anyone is carrying forward your legacy and is your true heir, it is only Raj Thackeray,” it said.

Sena perceived the developments as an attempt by the BJP “to use” Raj Thackeray to destabilise the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

“The BJP has been unsuccessfully trying to destabilise the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for long now. In its despair, it is now trying to use Raj Thackeray to do its work. Raj Thackeray had gotten an ED notice a few years ago, maybe the BJP is using that to blackmail him to help them destabilise our government,” Sena leader Bhaskar Jadhav told ThePrint.

MNS vice-president Yashwant Killedar confirmed that the poster was officially put up by the party.

“Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena strived for Hindutva, but now the party is ruling the government, his son is the CM and yet action is being taken against Hindus using loudspeakers to chant the Hanuman Chalisa. Shiv Sena’s Hindutva was different under Bal Thackeray. Under his son, nobody realised when their saffron turned green. In this backdrop, only Raj saheb can take Balasaheb’s famous ‘Thackeri baana’ (Bal Thackeray’s style of speeches) forward,” Killedar told ThePrint.

During his annual Gudi Padwa speech last Saturday, Raj Thackeray warned that if the loudspeakers over mosques were not removed, his party will resort to putting up loudspeakers that will play Hanuman Chalisa at double the volume.

Following the speech, MNS workers put up loudspeakers at various places in Mumbai but police soon acted upon it.

Amid the row over loudspeakers, Maharashtra Home minister Dilip Walse Patil said, “Everyone has the right to follow and spread his/her religion. But today the kind of statements that are being made to create a divide between communities, police department officials will definitely think over the issue.”

Last month, he had also accused BJP of raking up issues related to Hindutva in a bid to polarise the atmosphere ahead of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) civic polls.

MNS-Shiv Sena tussle

Raj Thackeray, an artist like his uncle Bal Thackeray, was seen to be his political heir in the early 2000s. But in 2006, Raj Thackeray parted ways with Shiv Sena after Uddhav Thackeray was appointed successor to Bal Thackeray.

In the same year, Raj Thackeray went on to form the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which has always taken a stand against Shiv Sena.

In its initial years, the party took an aggressive stand against migrants in Mumbai. The party won 13 Vidhan Sabha seats in its debut assembly poll in 2009. However, by the next election in 2014, its strength was reduced to 1 seat.

Since then, the party has been known to shift its positions. Prior to the 2019 elections, Raj Thackeray was critical of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, but, soon after the polls, the party started praising the BJP.

(Edited by Monami Gogoi)


Also read: Big-ticket Mumbai-Nagpur expressway was whose idea? Ex-allies Sena & BJP in fresh credit war


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