Mumbai(Maharashtra): Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut while addressing the media on Sunday said a meeting will be held amongst non-BJP Chief Ministers to be held in Mumbai soon to discuss the prevailing political situation in the country. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to the non-BJP Chief Ministers of states underlining the need to discuss the current political situation prevailing in the country.
"Sena President and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, who met Banerjee in Mumbai in December, have also spoken on this with the endeavour to hold such a CMs conference in Mumbai," Raut said. He said various issues, including unemployment, inflation, the “misuse" of Central probe agencies, skyrocketing fuel prices and attempts to create communal discord will be discussed in the upcoming meeting.
The statement came a day after 13 Opposition parties expressed their concern over the recent incidents of hate speech and communal violence in different parts of the country and urged people to maintain peace and harmony while noting the silence of the top BJP leadership. In a joint statement, the leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and her Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand counterparts MK Stalin and Hemant Soren, also raised concern over how issues relating to food, dress, faith, festivals and language "are being used" by the ruling establishment to polarise society.
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Telangana Chief Minister KCR also met Thackeray a few days ago. The Sena MP claimed that the recent attacks on Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions in different parts of India were "politically motivated" to polarise the voters on religious grounds, especially in states going for elections later this year. Train one's guns on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray, Raut christened him as the "New Hindu Owaisi", who has suddenly become adamant on the removal of loudspeakers outside Maharashtra mosques by May 3 or threatened a counter-agitation.
"Even in Maharashtra, a new 'Hindu Owaisi' went out of the way to spoil the harmony and create disturbances during the Hanuman Jayanti celebrations, but the people of the state have realised it and the police here are capable," Raut said. On Saturday, Raj Thackeray took part in a 'Maha Aarti' at Lord Hanuman temple in Pune where banners declaring him as a "Hindu Jananayak" (Hindu mass leader) came up, ostensibly challenging the status bestowed to his uncle and Shiv Sena founder, the late Balasaheb Thackeray, who was fondly referred to as "Hindu Hriday Samrat".
Raut said firmly that the issue of mosques' loudspeakers could have been raised with the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, but the "intention was to create a law-and-order situation as desired by the BJP and pave the way for imposing President's Rule in the state". He dismissively said while the BJP used the services of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi to bag the Uttar Pradesh elections, they have now propped up the "Hindu Owaisi" in Maharashtra.
Also Read: No third front without Congress, says Sanjay Raut
Regarding the BJP and Shiv Sena have a face-off on the issue of Hindutva, senior political analyst Vivek Bhavsar has said that "Shiv Sena has become more aggressive on the issue of ED investigation. National level recognition is also necessary for this Sharad Pawar will take the initiative to lead the meeting and also to strengthen the opposition to keep it together."
