Opposition by BJP MP to Raj's Ayodhya visit is 'fixed match': NCP

The continuing opposition by BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to Raj Thackeray's Ayodhya visit is a "fixed match", the Nationalist Congress Party claimed on Wednesday. The BJP is making Thackeray, who heads the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), to dance to its tune, it alleged.

Thackeray is going to visit Ayodhya on June 5, but Singh has said he would not be allowed to enter that city until he apologized for 'humiliating' the North Indians in the past.

"The opposition to Raj Thackeray's Ayodhya tour is a 'nura kushti' (fixed match). First announcement, then opposition by #BJP MP #BrijBhushan, then #DevendraFadnavis ji requesting the MP to allow visit and post request, silent #MNS says visit on. BJP is making him dance to its tune," NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto tweeted.


On Tuesday, the MNS had given a guarded reply to Singh, saying the BJP MP did not speak for the entire Uttar Pradesh. "He (Singh) has expressed his view. We have decided to go (to Ayodhya)," MNS leader Bala Nangaonkar had said.

The MNS, in its initial years, championed the cause of 'Marathi Manoos' and had launched an agitation in 2008 during which candidates from North India who arrived at Kalyan near here to take a railway exam were assaulted. In April this year, Raj Thackeray demanded that loudspeakers be removed from mosques in Maharashtra, a stand which the main opposition BJP supported.