On June 15, when Aaditya Thackeray visited Ayodhya with senior Shiv Sena leaders, he was sending a message to the BJP that his party had not abandoned the Hindutva plank. The visit was significant in more ways than one. Not only was it an attempt to convince its vote bank that Shiv Sena remains the sole custodian of the legacy of Aaditya’s grandfather, founder Balasaheb Thackeray, but also to tell Aaditya’s uncle Raj Thackeray, the chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) that the Shiv Sena could match his attempts to appropriate the party’s legacy.
Though Raj too was scheduled to visit Ayodhya on June 10, the BJP’s opposition to it made him cancel it. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP MP from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh, had not only opposed the visit, but had also demanded a public apology from the MNS chief for humiliating North Indians in Maharashtra. Raj had also wanted to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a request staunchly turned down by the state BJP unit. Given the politics of one-upmanship between the Shiv Sena and the MNS, it is an advantage of sorts for the former, said sources.