MNS calls for a ‘Modi-mukt Bharat’ after 2019 elections

In a startling claim, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said on Sunday that the BJP was planning to instigate communal riots over the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The MNS president was speaking at the party’s Gudi Padwa rally at the Shivaji Park maidan in Mumbai.

Calling on the political parties to join hands to defeat the Narendra Modi-led government for a “Modi-mukt Bharat” in 2019, Thackeray said the next LS polls will see a “third independence movement.”

In an attempt to take a soft-Hindutva line, the MNS president said he supported the cause of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya.  “Three years ago, I had predicted caste riots in Maharashtra, today I am telling you... in the next few months, there will be Hindu-Muslim riots in India. The main reason for the riot will be the Ram Temple. The case before the Supreme Court is being pushed to win the polls,” he said.

“Should the Ram Temple be constructed? It should surely be. The karsewaks died for the Ram Mandir,” he said. “But, if you want the Ram Temple to win the polls, let it be done next year after the polls are over.

“The central government has failed on all fronts, they have nothing to show, their promises have been exposed... So, the issue of the Ram Temple is being taken up, riots will be engineered for votes. This is their one-point programme,” he added.