Mumbai Throwing yet another challenge to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Shiv Sena, Amravati MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana threatened to recite the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ in public at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), where Thackeray held a public meeting on Saturday.
However, they did not specify when they would conduct the recitation. The Ranas also taunted Thackeray for allegedly diluting his commitment to Hindutva for the sake of power.
“I am challenging him (Thackeray). We will organise a massive recitation of the Hanuman Chalisa at the location where the rally was held,” said Ravi Rana, who is an independent MLA from Badnera in Amravati district.
“He (Thackeray) did not speak even a line on flowers being offered at the tomb of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Why is it so? They call themselves Hindutvawadis, but are they walking on Aurangzeb’s path? Are they turning into the Aurangzeb Sena?” charged Navneet, while referring to All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi paying his respects at the tomb of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at Auragabad.
She claimed that if late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray was alive, Owaisi would have had to pay a price for venerating the Mughal ruler who is reviled for his fanaticism and brutal killing of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.
“Uddhav Thackeray is working as per the credo of the Matoshree of 10 Janpath (Congress president Sonia Gandhi),” claimed Navneet, while alleging that the Shiv Sena had discarded the Hindutva of the late Sena chief.
Navneet also attacked Thackeray for not touching on issues like agrarian distress, power cuts and unemployment in his speech.
Ravi Rana alleged that the ‘Shivbhojan’ scheme, which gives subsidised meals to the needy at ₹10, was contractor-driven and rife with malpractices.
Shiv Sena legislator and spokesperson Manisha Kayande said the party had decided against reacting to any comment made by the Rana couple.
The lawmaker couple was arrested on April 23 for threatening to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside ‘Matoshree,’ which is the Thackeray family residence at Kalanagar in Bandra East. They were released from prison after 12 days of incarceration.