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Aditya Thackeray tweets displeasure at Sena leaders defying party line

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Hours after Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut expressed support for ghar wapsi (re-conversion) on a channel and Sena leader from Ulhasnagar, Naresh Pakhle, justified violence to stop "obscenity" in public places on news channels, Yuva Sena president Aditya Thackeray tweeted expressing his displeasure. Both interviews appeared on Sunday.

"I request the media to take only views of the officially named spokespersons of the Party. ANYONE else claiming to speak is NOT Party line," tweeted Aditya. Another tweet said: "Anyone else speaking, unless authorised by Party President, on Party Policy is not official and is in purely personal capacity."

Sanjay Raut was removed as spokesperson reportedly after he took a different line from official party stand.

A video showing a group led by Pakhle, slapping young couples for kissing on skywalk (Ulhasnagar) had gone viral last week. And people have been severely criticising Sena's moral policing. Pakhle had justified his stand on TV.

Party sources said these were not just two stray incidents of leaders speaking their "heart out" without checking party's stand. A week ago, UP unit of Sena had said party would not accept Muslims converted to Hinduism by RSS and its offshoots. "Ghar wapsi for Muslims would mean sending them to Pakistan," was UP Sena chief Anil Singh's comment.

On Monday in its editorial, Sena mouthpiece Saamna backed Ghar wapsi, though the party is yet to make its stand clear on the issue.

"Till yesterday, Hindus were converted to Muslims. Nobody then talked about it being done forcibly or through enticement. But now when Ganga has started flowing in the reverse direction, pseudo secularists are saying conversions are not right," says the editorial which has also targetted BJP for its "confusing" stand. "Looks like a big section in BJP favours conversions, but they are in a quandary as their party is ruling at Centre and state," it says.

Junior Thackeray's attempt to keep vocal ones in check through tweets has surprised the cadre. "We are a disciplined party. If some members have defied party lines, they must be sacked, instead of advising the media through Twitter."

And opponents lost no time in criticizing Sena leadership. "Leaders speaking on different lines show how weak leadership is. Uddhav is unable to control leaders which was never the case when Bal Thackeray was alive," said a Congress leader.

Some observers, however, say Aditya's tweets in fact show party's consent to these leaders and their actions. "Had party been serious, it would have taken action against these leaders rather than taking to Twitter," said Prof Surendra Jodhale, a political commentator. "Sena seems to be confused as it seeks to play the roles of both government and opposition. By supporting hardliners, party wants to maintain its old aggressive stand to get political edge over BJP, which is Sena's main competitor now.

Aditya and Raut couldn't be contacted. Sena media coordinator Harshal Pardhan insisted that Aditya's tweets had nothing to do with Raut, but was targeting leaders who were defying party rules and maligning Sena's image.

Sena spokespersons
In Nov end, party had announced the names of five new spokespersons, replacing former chief minister Manohar Joshi, former group leader in Assembly Subhash Desai and MP Sanjay Raut even as it was negotiating with BJP to join the Fadnavis government. Hand-picked by Uddhav Thackeray, the new spokespersons are South Mumbai MP Arvind Sawant, MLA from Purandar constituency Vijay Shivtare, Manisha Kayande, Arvind Bhosale and Marathi actor Amol Kolhe. It retained spokesperson and legislator Neelam Gorhe.

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