While addressing a massive rally in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad on Sunday, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray took a potshot at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar.

He said, “Sharad Pawar says that we are against the country. Pawar saheb, you are doing hate politics of caste and religion.”

Raj Thackeray accused Sharad Pawar of dividing Maharashtra along caste lines over a book written by James Lane on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

“Pawar said the British writer wrote false and derogatory things about Shivaji Maharaj based on information provided by Shiv Shahir Babasaheb Purandare, a Brahmin. Later, in an India Today interview, the author clarified that he had not spoken to Purandare,” he said at the rally.

‘BAD PHASE IN MAHARASHTRA’

Speaking on the occasion of Maharashtra Day in Aurangabad, Raj Thackeray also said that the politics in the state is going through “a bad phase”.

“Aurangzeb wrote a letter about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj – that Shivaji was a great leader. We forgot this history. This was our Maharashtra. Today, we’re seeing the condition – they’re speaking against Maharashtra, doing politics,” he said.