Shiv Sena (UBT) Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has given a strong case of militating a political front between party patron Uddhav Thackeray and the president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Raj Thackeray, saying that such an alliance is very much necessary to give Maharashtra a new direction on the one hand, and on the other, to safeguard the Mumbai identity in the state. In his column Rok Thok in the mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena (UBT), Saamana, Raut pointed out that the reunion of the Thackeray cousins would bring back a sense of confidence among the Marathi people and become a shield against perceived dangers of the BJP and corpora-finance.
The opposition leader Raut leveled allegations against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which, according to him, conspired to turn Mumbai out of Maharashtra and thereby ultimately make it a Union Territory. His main contention was that the BJP wants to exploit Mumbai economically and divide Vidarbha and wipe out the history and culture of Mumbai and Maharashtra. He also recalled earlier remarks of the Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on supporting a separate state of Vidarbha.
Raut cautioned that in the absence of the alliance between Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, industry giants such as Adani and Lodha would take charge of Mumbai to the point that the city would end up being a part of another state. In fact, he told me that since July 5, after 20 years of split, the cousins came together, and when the efforts to implement Hindi as a Class 1 language in the state were made forcefully, the Marathi manoos got a fresh impulse.
Although nothing official has been declared at the moment, Raut emphasized that such an alliance is badly needed to resist the increasing external pressure and guarantee the future of Maharashtra. His ending was that anyone who thought that the Thackerays would be cowed by political forces is wrong, and that the cohesiveness between the two has rattled the ruling establishment in Delhi and also in the state of Maharashtra.
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