Mumbai The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) claimed that their leader Raj Thackeray received a threat letter and demanded that the state government probe into the issue.
They also requested the central government to intervene as they claim that the state has been neglecting the party.
Key MNS leaders rushed to Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey and Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil and told them about the threat. They claimed that the letter was in Hindi with a few words in Urdu and the party received it through post at MNS’s Lalbaug office.
MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar warned the state against ignoring these threats. “The whole of Maharashtra will burn if Raj Thackeray is touched. We received the letter at our Lalbaug shakha where it threatened to kill both Raj and me,” he alleged.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule said that additional security should be provided to Raj Thackeray. “I will personally ask the Maharashtra Government to not just double, but triple his security,” said Sule.
Recently, Raj Thackeray adopted the hardline Hindutva plank and raised the issue of loudspeakers on top of mosques and gave the state an ultimatum of May 3 to remove them. However, the whole campaign fizzled out due to the deft handling by the state government as it cracked down on MNS party workers. The state also asked mosques to not play the morning azaan prayers and also to lower the volume for the rest of the day.
The agitation failed to pick up pace among the public as well as most realised that this would also mean that temples would have to lower the volume of their aartis too.
Also, Raj’s plans to visit Ayodhya to oversee the temple constructions have also taken a backseat after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh opposed it.
Singh has been demanding an apology from Raj Thackeray for his violence towards North Indians.
On Wednesday, Singh again addressed a rally accusing Raj of being evil. “Raj Thackeray is coming to Ayodhya just for political gains. We will not let him inside till he apologises,” said Singh. He said he has tweeted to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and asked him not to entertain Raj.