Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray on Saturday charged that Opposition NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray were spreading “caste poison” in Maharashtra ahead of the State Assembly polls to be held in October this year.

Talking to media persons at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (erstwhile Aurangabad) as part of his ongoing “Maharashtra Navnirman Yatra”, Raj said: “All the parties, including the BJP, have been playing politics over reservation. But the caste poison that Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray have started spreading after the Lok Sabha elections is terrible”.

Alluding to a recent statement by the NCP (SP) chief that “Maharashtra might witness Manipur-like disturbances in view of the brewing rift among communities over Maratha-OBC reservations issue”, Raj accused Sharad Pawar and Uddhav of instigating the agitation over the reservations issue to trigger caste riots in the state ahead of the State Assembly polls.

“Shouldn’t Sharad Pawar take the stand that caste politics should not spread in Maharashtra? On the contrary, they ( Pawar and Uddhav) are contributing... Therefore, I request the people of all castes of Maharashtra not to support their dirty politics. Otherwise, I don’t even think about what will happen to Maharashtra in the future,” the MNS chief said.

Demanding to know as to why the ruling BJP which has been in power at the Centre for 10 days had failed to accord reservation to the Maratha community so far, Raj said: “It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that he entered politics holding the finger of Sharad Pawar. He was in majority at the Centre for 10 years. So why did not give the quotas. Uddhav Thackeray was also (an ally) at the Centre and state for five years, why did not insist on the Maratha reservation”.

Replying to a question Raj said: “If Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray believe that they got big votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on their own merits, they are mistaken as the vote was against Modi and Amit Shah.

“Whether the Muslims or Dalits voted against BJP in Maharashtra or across India, it happened due to a narrative that the Constitution would be changed,” the MNS chief said.

On the Maratha reservations agitation undertaken by Jarange Patil, Raj said: “Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray used Jarange’s agitation to do politics and the unfortunate part is that some journalists from Marathwada whose names I know, how some of them got contracts, how they got cars”