Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray unveiled his party’s new flag Thursday. It’s saffron in colour, and bears the royal seal of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The flag appears to spell out the new direction that his party looks set take from now. The previous MNS flag had saffron, blue, white and green colours, symbolising the party’s “inclusive” policy.
In the new flag, blue, white and green have given way to saffron, with a ‘Raj Mudra’ — used during Shivaji’s rule — embossed in the centre.
While the old flag too had the saffron band broader than the others, the new all-saffron flag gives an indication that the MNS is now leaning more towards Hindutva, an ideology Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray championed.
The Shiv Sena, which formed government in Maharashtra last year in alliance with the Congress and the NCP, is no longer a vehement proponent of Hindutva, creating a void in the state that the MNS is being seen to be trying to fill.
The party, however, said it never gave up the ideology.
“We had never given up Hindutva,” Raj Thackeray’s wife Sharmila told reporters Thursday.
The launch of MNS’ new flag also coincided with the birth anniversary of Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray’s uncle and father of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who now heads the Shiv Sena.
The event also saw Raj Thackeray’s son Amit being appointed as a senior leader of the party.
The unveiling of the flag came hours before a mega rally that the MNS chief will address Thursday evening.
‘Shadow cabinet’ to keep watch on MVA
The MNS picking up Hindutva cudgels also points to a future of confrontational politics between Raj and Uddhav Thackeray.
Not only its Hindutva ideology, the Sena chief has also set aside the party’s shrill sons-of-the-soil rhetoric after forming government with the Congress and the NCP.
Raj, who many thought would be the chosen one when Bal Thackeray was anointing his successor, had lost out to a ‘reluctant’ Uddhav Thackeray. Raj left the Sena in 2006 and went on to form MNS, and the rift between the Thackeray cousins has only widened since.
Raj Thackeray’s change in stance comes days after he met senior BJP leaders Devendra Fadnavis and Ashish Shelar who had urged him to adopt the Hindutva route to checkmate his cousin.
Sources said the MNS will put in place a “shadow cabinet” to keep watch on the policies and functioning of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra.
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