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Ahead of his Aurangabad rally tomorrow, Shiv Sena takes a dig at Raj Thackeray
Shiv Sena is expected to go on the offensive against MNS and BJP, which are trying to corner the Sena over the Hindutva ideology.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Saturday launched an attack on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray ahead of his rally in Aurangabad on May 1. Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that those who are praising Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath today once called him a ‘bald’ man and insulted the saffron clothes he wears.
The attack on Raj came a day after Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray asked party leaders to go on the offensive against the MNS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
On the MNS’s shift to Hindutva, Raut said that they have “donned the skin of Hindutva”, while Shiv Sena has never used its ideology for political gains. In a bid to corner Raj over his comments against the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Raut said, “You should look at your (MNS) leader’s statements on the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The ones who called him ‘a bald person who roams in a saffron cloth’ are going to Ayodhya now.
“We want to see how Yogi ji welcomes them. The ones who insulted the saffron clothes of Yogi ji have now turned Hindutvawadi. If I speak more on this, then it would become difficult for you to move out of your home.” He added that the MNS was not connected with the demolition of Babri Masjid and the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
Reacting to it, MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said, “It seems that Uddhav ji has got an issue with his memory. In 1992, he was engrossed in photography, while Raj saheb was touring Maharashtra with Balasaheb.”
In a party gathering in December 2018 in Vikhroli, Mumbai, Raj had made personal remarks against UP CM Yodi Adityanth calling him ‘bald’ among other things. “That bald person who roams in a saffron cloth... I don’t know what kind of CM he is…. he has not made a single statement for the welfare of the state.”
The Sena also targeted the UP CM who had called Lord Hanuman a Dalit. “Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has made some statements on Lord Hanuman claiming that he was a Dalit; that Hanuman need not be worshipped. Such people are trying to teach us about Lord Hanuman now,” he said.
With its back against the wall, Shiv Sena is expected to go on the offensive against MNS and BJP, which are trying to corner the Sena over the Hindutva ideology. Raut said that Uddhav Thackeray had asked them to tackle the ones who are trying to poison the atmosphere in the state. The party had exercised restraint as it was in power, but now it would fight back, he said.
“The atmosphere in Maharashtra is being vitiated in the name of religion by some parties. There is a conspiracy to defame Maharashtra and Shiv Sena by some anti-social organisations. They want to destabilise Maharashtra and create hurdles before the state government. Uddhav ji told us that it is important to respond to these,” he said.
Raut further added, “Responding in a tit for tat manner is in our nature... Because we are in power, we exercised restraint on certain things till now. But they have crossed all limits so we have to tackle them. We don’t need to be coached to fight, neither do we need people on rent to fight.”
