Raj Thackeray accused the BJP of exploiting the Chhath Puja controversy to provoke conflict in Maharashtra. He linked the alleged polarisation campaign to the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.Raj Thackeray claimed that the BJP was frustrated because the conflict it wanted had not materialised.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to incite conflict in Mumbai and Maharashtra over Chhath Puja ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, news agency Press Trust of India reported.His remarks came two days after a controversy over Bhojpuri songs being played at some Mumbai railway stations before the festival. The move drew criticism and raised questions about the use of railway announcement systems for cultural events.In a post on X, Thackeray said no attempt should be made to incite a "cultural frenzy" in the name of religious worship to "plunder" Maharashtra and tarnish its cultural heritage.
He added that the state's restraint should not be mistaken for cowardice."The Bharatiya Janata Party and the toxic social media ecosystem it nurtures are currently making desperate attempts to incite conflict in Mumbai, Maharashtra, by exploiting the issue of Chhath Puja," Thackeray said. He claimed that the BJP was frustrated because the conflict it wanted had not materialised."All this frantic manoeuvring is being orchestrated with an eye on the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh," he said.
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are expected to be held early next year. Thackeray said social media reels were being circulated to portray the rituals as a "cultural invasion"."As if that weren't enough, they even attempted to play Bhojpuri music at certain railway stations in Mumbai, which the MNS promptly shut down anyway," he said.He urged North Indian and Gujarati communities to realise that the BJP was pitting them against local people for its own interests."If the North Indian and Gujarati communities choose to join them and confront the Marathi manoos, then let them be advised: This is Maharashtra!
This is the land of the Marathas!" he said.Targeting the BJP, Thackeray said the party's "think tank" had suffered a decline in its intellectual capacity and that its long-used "divide and rule" tactic was no longer effective.He alleged that before Lok Sabha elections, the BJP stoked Hindu-Muslim tensions and paraded women wearing burqas through public grounds and parks to create fear that others had encroached upon people's spaces.Thackeray also claimed that the BJP had created a "Gujarati versus Marathi" conflict last year over feeding pigeons at kabutarkhanas in an attempt to win the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections."The BJP cannot win elections based on its actual performance; instead, it engineers conflicts between groups and secures victories on the back of the blood spilled in those clashes," Thackeray said, according to PTI.He also targeted the Election Commission, saying: "Of course, this is largely a superficial spectacle, as the real work is done by the Election Commission. But it provides them with a convenient narrative to explain how they achieved their victory."The Opposition has accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of facilitating alleged manipulation of electoral rolls to benefit the BJP.Thackeray claimed that, encouraged by the "Gen Z" movement, the process of removing the BJP from power at the Centre and in the states had begun and was "bound to happen soon".He said this had left the party and its mentors worried that, once out of power, their actions over the past 12 to 14 years would return to haunt them.Urging Marathi people not to fight on the BJP's terms, Thackeray said: "There is no need for us to fight on the battlefield of their choosing.
That is not the 'Maharashtra way'. They may have forgotten Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's guerrilla warfare tactics, but we must remember it.
We shall decide how and when to respond using these tactics. We must not fall into the traps they have laid for their own selfish ends."He further accused the BJP of damaging the country's social harmony and tolerance and said the same was happening in Maharashtra.
Acting on directions from the Centre, the party was selling Maharashtra "piece by piece" to a single industrialist and his associates, he alleged.Thackeray also accused the ruling party of beginning to hollow out the Sahyadri mountain range, referring to upcoming hydropower projects in the region.In his remarks, the MNS chief linked the Chhath Puja controversy and the playing of Bhojpuri songs at railway stations to what he described as the BJP's efforts to create divisions before the Uttar Pradesh elections, while urging Marathi people not to respond on the party's terms.- Ends