Raj Thackeray says BJP is using Chhath row to provoke Mumbai ahead of UP election

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray on Friday charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with turning the Chhath Puja issue into a political weapon, with the aim of setting off social and cultural conflict in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra. Mumbai has a sizeable North Indian population. In a post on X, Thackeray tied the effort to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, which is expected early next year.

The post came two days after a row over Bhojpuri songs being played at certain railway stations in Mumbai before the festival. The move was criticised, and people asked whether the railway announcement system should be used for cultural programmes at all.

Thackeray alleged that the BJP and the "toxic" social media network it has built up want a fight in Mumbai and Maharashtra. According to him, reels showing Chhath rituals have been put into circulation and described as a "cultural attack". He said an effort to play Bhojpuri music at some Mumbai stations was stopped by the MNS at once. In his telling, the BJP is frustrated because the clash it hoped for never came.

The MNS chief said nobody should try to "loot" Maharashtra or run down its cultural heritage by whipping up "cultural frenzy" behind the cover of worship. He added that the state's patience must not be read as cowardice.

Thackeray also addressed the North Indian and Gujarati communities directly. He urged them to see, as he put it, that the BJP is pitting them against local residents for its own gain. He warned: "this is Maharashtra! This is the land of the Marathas!" should those communities choose to side with the party and take on the Marathi manoos.

Turning to BJP strategy, he said the party's "think tank" has lost intellectual strength, and that the "divide and rule" approach that won it elections for years has stopped working. He claimed that each time Lok Sabha polls draw near, the party stirs Hindu-Muslim tension through invented stories about religious identity and the use of public spaces. He also mentioned burqa-clad women being taken around grounds and gardens, and said the purpose was to scare people into believing that "the others" had taken over their spaces.

Thackeray said a "Gujarati versus Marathi" conflict was also manufactured last year, ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, around the feeding of pigeons at designated spots. In his view, the BJP cannot succeed on the basis of work done, so it makes groups fight one another and profits from the bloodshed that follows. He said the aim is to pull public attention away from governance and basic issues.

He brought the Election Commission into the matter as well. The Opposition has accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of tampering with electoral rolls, and Thackeray alleged that the Commission had helped the BJP win elections.

On the national picture, Thackeray said the "Gen Z" movement has begun the process of removing the BJP from power at the Centre and in the states, and that it will happen soon. He claimed the party and its ideological mentors are uneasy about losing office because they fear scrutiny of what they have done over the past 12 to 14 years.

Addressing Marathi people and MNS workers, he asked them not to be goaded into a confrontation. Maharashtra, he said, should not fight on ground picked by its opponents, since that is not the "way of Maharashtra". Recalling the guerrilla warfare strategy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which he called "ganimi kava", he said the BJP may have forgotten it but Marathi people must not. Maharashtra, he said, will itself decide when and how to answer, and he cautioned against walking into traps laid for selfish ends. He also warned that any attempt to spread cultural unrest in the name of religious festivals would not be tolerated, and that the right reply would come at the right time.

The MNS chief accused the BJP of harming the country's social harmony and tolerance, and said the same damage was now visible in Maharashtra. He alleged that the ruling party, acting on instructions from the Centre, is selling the state off bit by bit to one industrialist and his associates, with its land, forests and natural resources being handed over. He accused the government of exploiting those resources, and cited hydropower in making the point. He asked the Marathi community to stay alert to what is happening around them.