UNION HOME MINISTRY MAY CONSIDER SECURITY UPGRADE FOR RAJ THACKERAY

Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray wants a security upgrade, preferably to the ‘Z’ category, after receiving a threat letter over his call to lower the decibel levels of the azan called out from mosque rooftops using loudspeakers in the state.

MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar met Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil on Wednesday and placed a request for enhanced security for his party boss in the wake of the receipt of an anonymous letter (in Hindi with sparsely used Urdu words) that threatened to eliminate Thackeray and Nandgaonkar over the MNS demand for regulating the decibel levels of loudspeakers announcing morning prayers at mosques across Maharashtra.

According to a senior BJP leader, his party (read: Union Home Ministry) would take a call on Raj Thackeray’s security cover if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government ignored the MNS Chief ’s request formally. “The same was done in the case of BJP leader Kirit Sommaiya and Union Minister Narayan Rane, both of whom were accorded ‘Z’ category security by the Union Home Ministry, following their run-in with the Maharashtra government and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in particular.”

The leader pointed out that the MNS chief had also been warned against visiting Ayodhya on June 05, as per his schedule, to seek blessings at the Lord Rama temple by BJP MP Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has demanded an apology from the MNS Chief for past violence perpetrated against North Indians in Mumbai by the party from Maharashtra.

While the MNS chief is yet to officially respond to the BJP MP over his demanded apology, erstwhile Maharashtra Chief Minister of the BJP (now Leader of Opposition in the state legislative assembly) Devendra Fadnavis and his BJP counterpart in the state legislative council Pravin Darekar have backed the MNS chief ’s Ayodhya visit while urging their party colleague from UP to refrain from disrupting Raj Thackeray’s visit.