Raj Thackeray to adopt Sena's Hindutva politics, announcement likely on Jan 23

As per sources in the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) camp on Friday, party chief Raj Thackeray is set to adopt Shiv Sena's Hindutva politics. There has been consistent criticism from the Opposition that the Sena has compromised its ideology after forming the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance with Congress and NCP. Sources reveal that Raj Thackeray was critical of the Sena in his meeting with party functionaries in Pune. According to sources, he will make a formal announcement regarding emulating the Hindutva politics of the Sena on January 23, the birth anniversary of his uncle Balasaheb Thackeray. 

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Dilemma faced by Shiv Sena

The ideological dilemma for the Sena has come to the fore on issues such as the Citizenship Amendment Act and Veer Savarkar. In the case of the former, the Sena MPs adopted a different position in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. On the other hand, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut defended Savarkar both on Twitter as well as in the Saamana newspaper. However, party supremo Uddhav Thackeray refused to comment on Rahul Gandhi’s remark that had sparked off the controversy in the first place. 

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'Diverted the attention from economic slowdown' 

On December 21, Raj Thackeray broke his silence on the Citizenship Amendment Act, observing that it was a ploy to divert attention from the economic crisis in the country. Maintaining that there was a lot of confusion regarding the law, he claimed that the government had deemed Aadhaar as an inadmissible document to prove citizenship. Moreover, he questioned the need to give citizenship to more people from abroad at a time when India was facing a lot of challenges due to population explosion.

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Raj Thackeray remarked, “First, I want to thank Amit Shah for diverting the attention of the nation from the economic slowdown using this Act. There is so much confusion in the laws. Now, they have said that Aadhaar card cannot prove citizenship. If it can be used for voting, then why can’t it be used to prove citizenship? Then, what was the use of making people queue up for the Aadhaar card?" 

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