Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and Republic Party of India leader have been engaged in a mudslinging exercise after the former publicly questioned the latter's acquisition of property in Bandra.
The development sparked off speculation that the MNS chief might be arrested and produced before the court in Vikhroli in suburban Mumbai.
Media personnel trying to reach Thackeray's residence were told to wait several meters away.
Trouble had erupted in India's financial capital on February 3 when activists belonging to Samajwadi Party and MNS clashed over Raj Thackeray's controversial remarks against north Indians.
Terming socialite Shobhaa De's tweet -- suggesting separate statehood for Mumbai -- as "frivolous", Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said the state will remain united.
Shinde and Killary, along with MNS sympathiser Bala Nandgaonkar and other MNS activists, were picked up from Matunga in central Mumbai for instigating people and rioting, deputy commissioner of police Sunil Ramanand said.
Amitabh Bachchan, who is away in Shimla for a film shoot, stays away from the controversy.
Following the footsteps of the MNS chief's call for 'Marathi pride', Soren publicly claimed on Sunday that Jharkhand remained the sole preserve of adivasis (tribals) and Moolvasis (original settlers).
Police said sensitive pockets, where trouble can erupt, are on high alert. Cinema theatres have also been provided security as one of the movie halls, showing a Bhojpuri film, was targeted on Saturday.
The Mumbai police filed a 73-page charge sheet in a local court against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and 20 others for rioting and assault on North Indians appearing for a Railway recruitment examination in Mumbai in 2008.
Maharashtra assembly witnessed scenes of pandemonium on Monday as Members of Legislative Assembly of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena tried to prevent Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi from taking oath in Hindi.The MNS MLAs, who had earlier demanded that all legislators take their oaths in Marathi, created a ruckus the moment Azmi started taking his oath.Azmi was reportedly hit by MNS MLA Ram Kadam. The House was adjourned for 20 minutes following the ruckus.
Top political leaders of Bihar, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, on Monday strongly condemned the attack on Samajwadi Party Member of Legislative Assembly Abu Asim Azmi.Nitish Kumar condemned the incident and declared that it had again exposed the MNS' true colours "We will take the matter up with the Union government as well as the Maharashtra government."
'If the Thackeray cousins love the media, the media too adores the two bespectacled Thackeray scions, who in their bid to espouse their Marathi manoos agenda, have become an easy bait for a medium that depends for its survival on high TRPs and ad revenues.'
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday declared that he was not afraid of fighting for the sons-of-the-soil issue and was ready to do anything for the Marathi manoos.Thackeray also appealed them not to allow migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to settle down in Amravati as it is not in larger interest of the state."People from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are trying to settle in all parts of Maharashtra. It is dangerous," he said.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday said he was not into politics for personal gains, but to fight for issues. "I am not bothered about any gains or losses that I might incur with my involvement in politics. I have taken up certain issues, and I will stick to them," Thackeray told newspersons during an informal chat in Nagpur.
Family members of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national on death row in a Pakistani prison, on Saturday met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray. Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, her husband Baldev Singh and Sarabjit's daughter Swapandeep Kaur met Raj at his residence in central Mumbai.Describing their plight to Raj, Dalbir alleged that the government was not making the required efforts to seek Sarabjit's release.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray was on Saturday granted bail in a case filed by the police for violating orders during the Kalyan-Dombivali municipal corporation polls in October 2010. Raj appeared before the Kalyan judicial magistrate, who released him on bail on a bond of Rs 5,000 with surety of the same amount. He was accompanied by his lawyer Sayaji Nangre. The police had filed an FIR against Raj on October 30 for disobeying a notice.
Complying with a Bombay High Court directive, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray today surrendered before a court in Kalyan in Maharashtra in connection with a 2008 rioting case in which North Indians appearing for railway recruitment examination were assaulted.
The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Monday asked private carrier Jet Airways to make announcements in Marathi and also Marathi movies and newspapers mandatory in flights operating from Mumbai.
The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which emerged as the second largest party in the Kalyan-Dombivli civic polls with 28 seats in the 107-member House, on Monday decided not to form the new civic government and work as an Opposition party
The state government in October last had moved the court seeking cancellation of bail of Raj granted in February by the Vikhroli metropolitan magistrate following his arrest in October after his supporters went on the rampage at several railway recruitment board job centres.
Acting on a Jamshedpur court order, the Mumbai police on Monday arrested Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, who is accused of hurting religious sentiments and instigating violence.The MNS chief was arrested today morning by the Shivaji Park police and produced before the Dadar court, where he was granted bail of Rs 15,000, Raj's lawyer Shayaji Nangare told PTI.He was later released on bail.
Three months after two legislators allegedly assaulted a police officer inside the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly premises, the crime branch has filed 130-page chargesheet against them.
The order came from first class judicial magistrate A K Tiwary when Thackeray failed to appear before the court on Thursday in connection with a petition by lawyer Hameed Raza Khan under sectioins 153 (rioting), 295 (hurting religious sentiments) and other relevant sections of the Indian PenalCode for the MNS leader's remarks against Chhatt festival earlier this year.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray will not participate in the all-party meeting called by the state government to resolve the loudspeaker dispute, MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said on Monday.
Citizens are finding cyberspace to be the best way to express their views on the grisly terror act and are not shying away from holding the country's politicians responsible for the situation.
The issue of 'Marathi pride' raised by Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has polarised the state politics and the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition can ill afford to ignore its emotive appeal in an election year.
Jagdish Prasad, father of Pawan Kumar, who was allegedly killed by MNS activists in Mumbai, filed a murder case against Raj Thackeray in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Biharsharief, Nalanda. A court official told rediff.com that Jagdish Prasad has filed a case against Raj Thackeray under 302 of IPC.
Hundreds of slogan-shouting students descended on Barh railway station in Rural Patna demanding that Thackeray, who has been arrested, be tried for sedition, and set ablaze the coach of the Danapur-Durg South Bihar Express, Superintendent of Railway Police (Patna) D N Gupta said.
The warrant against Thackeray for allegedly making derogatory remarks against members of the Bihari community, was brought to Mumbai by the Jamshedpur police and will be served on the MNS leader later in the week as Thackeray is presently out of the city, he said.
It was a meeting to show solidarity with the laid-off Jet Airways staffers, but MNS chief Raj Thackeray's men turned it into a coaching class for Marathi.
Toughening his stand against migrants, specially north Indians, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday indicated that his party would launch more intense agitation on the issue.
A delegation of shop owners on Friday requested Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray to extend the deadline for Marathi signboards by three months. With festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Dusshera and Diwali round the corner, shop owners need some time to put up Marathi boards and change interior of the shops accordingly, they said.
Stepping up his campaign for Marathi signboards, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray warned shop owners, not putting up the boards by Thursday, to face the wrath of his men and asked police to think before lathi-charging his party workers. Raj said he has written a letter to the police, asking them to "think twice" before lathi-charging MNS activists involved in the agitation to enforce the civic body's deadline stipulating Marathi signboards on the city shops.
In a video posted on Twitter, Dutt said Aaditya Thackeray is like "a younger brother to me".
A court in Jamshedpur issued a non-bailable warrant against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for failing to appear before it in a case regarding his alleged derogatory remarks on 'chat festival'.
Foreign actresses who appear in Bollywood films are being targeted in a hate campaign by the MNS in Mumbai.
A day after the Supreme Court asked him to desist from making provocative speeches targeting north Indians, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray chose to speak on Hindi saying the language should not be forced on the people.
Members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Saturday celebrated the 40th birthday of their leader Raj Thackeray by organising blood donation camps and other social activities.However, the MNS refrained from holding a Hatt Puja programme, a take-off on the Chhat Puja performed by north Indians, which has become a bone of contention between MNS and migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.Over 20,000 supporters visited the MNS chief's home at Dadar and greeted their leader.
A Jamshedpur court on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, the second such warrant by a Jharkhand court in the past one year, after he failed to appear in the court on Thursday in connection with a case of making allegedly provocative comments against members of a particular community about a year ago.On May 16, the Jharkhand high court directed the MNS chief to appear in the lower court in Jamshedpur on June 12.