Raj Thackeray leads MNS' mega procession to oust Pakistani-Bangladeshi infiltrators

Mumbai, Feb 09: Thousands of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists took part in a mega-procession to demand the ouster of Pakistani-Bangladeshi infiltrators living in the country.

Led by party president Raj Thackeray, the procession from Girgaum Chowpatty wend its way to the historic Azad Maidan, around 4 km away.

"I don't understand why the Muslims who were protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act, were doing so. CAA is not for the Muslims who were born here," said the MNS chief in a reference to protests against the amended citizenship act, across the country.

"To whom are you showing your strength?" Raj questioned the anti-CAA protesters.

Many raised slogans demanding that the illegal migrants living in the country should be driven away as they are a drain on the country's economy, resources and jobs, besides posing threats to national security.

In the moves viewed as his party's endeavour to jump onto the Hindutva bandwagon, the MNS chief had last month launched a new saffron flag bearing the royal seal of Chhatrapati Shivaji.

According to political observers, the MNS, which was relegated to the margins in Maharashtra politics after successive electoral drubbings in the last ten years, is trying to fill the Hindutva vacuum believed to have been created after the Shiv Sena joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form a government in November last year.

In his recent interview to party mouthpiece Saamana, Shiv Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had denied that his party had abandoned the agenda of Hindutva.