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Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam on Saturday, July 18, targeted Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray over his Ram Raksha agitation, saying that the former Maharashtra chief minister had no right to invoke Lord Ram after abandoning the Hindutva ideology.

Those who are doing the drama of reciting the Ram Raksha hymn are actually trying to save their “broken and scattered” party, said the former MP who belongs to the Shiv Sena headed by Eknath Shinde.

“Uddhav Thackeray, who severed ties with Ram, sacrificed Hindutva, abandoned the ideals of Bal Thackeray and aligned with the Congress, has no moral authority to take the name of Ram,” he said.

Notably, Nirupam, who started his career with the undivided Shiv Sena headed by Bal Thackeray, was himself with the Congress for several years.

Thackeray was a mute spectator when sadhus were lynched in Palghar district during his tenure as chief minister, Nirupam further claimed, referring to a 2020 incident where a mob of villagers killed two religious leaders and their driver on suspicion that they were child-lifters.

“When such people recite Ram Raksha stotra, it feels like Raavan is reciting it,” he said.

Thackeray, along with MPs, MLAs and workers of his party, offered prayers and performed ‘aarti’ at a Ram temple in Nagpur on Saturday ahead of his ‘Ram Raksha Andolan’ against the embezzlement of donations at the Ayodhya Ram temple.