The ruling tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was trying to create “a false perception” across Maharashtra that the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) was functioning like the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “B-team”, alleged BJP State president Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday.
Claiming that the MNS was “acting independently”, Mr. Patil further accused the MVA coalition, particularly the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena of attempting to create “a false echo” that Mr. Raj Thackeray’s regional party was acting at the BJP’s behest.
“The MVA has been trying hard to create this echo that the MNS is the BJP’s ‘B-team’. To establish this perception, one sees different NCP leaders like Jitendra Awhad, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule or the Shiv Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray making similar statements to this effect at different times. He is independent. He is neither the BJP’s ‘B-team’ nor anybody else’s. Tomorrow, Mr. Thackeray may well criticise us [the BJP] severely,” said the BJP State chief.
Following its rout in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election and its general decline in the State’s politics, the MNS had changed its ideological direction by veering towards Hindutva politics, signalled by Mr. Raj Thackeray’s adoption of a saffron flag incorporating Chhatrapati Shivaji’s royal seal or ‘Rajmudra’ in 2020.
Since then, Mr. Raj Thackeray’s party has inched ever closer to the BJP in an attempt on the MNS’s part to seize the Hindutva space from the Shiv Sena, led by his estranged cousin and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, following the latter’s falling out with the BJP and subsequent alliance with the ideologically opposed NCP and the Congress.
In his speech on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, the Marathi New Year, earlier this month, Mr. Raj Thackeray, continuing with his hard Hindutva line, caused a furore by demanding the MVA remove loudspeakers before mosques or else his MNS party workers would do so by force, and play the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ in their stead.
On Tuesday, the MNS chief, in a similar address in Thane, reiterated his demand with an ultimatum to the MVA government to take down the loudspeakers before mosques by May 3.
The BJP State chief further made clear that his party could not be held responsible should any potential law and order situation arise in the State following the MNS’ demand and ultimatum to the ruling government to remove loudspeakers from mosques.
“The government is not ours and neither is the responsibility for maintaining law and order…The stance that Mr. Thackeray has taken is not against Islam as a religion. His point is that everyone must respect each other,” Mr. Patil said.
“While the MNS may be advocating ‘Hindutva’, it is in the BJP’s breath and has been since the RSS’ (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) inception… nonetheless, the issues Mr. Raj Thackeray had raised in his Thane speech are important from the point of view of the country’s unity given that certain forces were trying to divide the nation today,” Mr. Patil said.
Batting for the MNS chief, the BJP State president said that neither Mr. Raj Thackeray nor the BJP was opposed to Muslims practising their religion.
“But while doing so, everyone must learn to respect other religions by not imposing their own. So, it is in this context, and with regards to noise pollution that Mr. Thackeray has demanded that the azaan be held within the mosque,” Mr. Patil said.
Throughout 2021, the BJP leadership, including former CM Devendra Fadnavis and Mr. Patil, had denied that their party would ally with the MNS given the latter’s “chauvinistic” prejudices.
That, however, did not stop Mr. Patil from calling on the MNS chief at the latter’s residence in Dadar on Friday morning, fuelling speculations over a BJP-MNS tie-up for the civic polls, and the MVA’s accusation that Mr. Raj Thackeray was acting like the BJP’s agent in a bid to split the Shiv Sena’s traditional Marathi vote bank.
