Aditya Thackeray to visit Ayodhya on June 10

Mumbai, May 8

Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray, son of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, will visit Ayodhya on June 10 to offer prayers at the upcoming Ram Temple, a top official said here on Sunday.

"Minister Aditya Thackeray will travel to Ayodhya for taking darshan of Ram lalla... It's not a political visit but purely with religious intentions," Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut told mediapersons.

During his visit, thousands of Shiv Sainiks and Yuva Sainiks will join Aditya from Maharashtra and other parts of India, he added.

The visit will come five days after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray's trip to Ayodhya.

The mood has been set for Aditya's trip there with posters and banners proclaiming that the "real" one is coming and people shoukd neware of the fake, a swipe at his uncle Raj Thackeray.

However, Raut said he wasn't aware of who had put up such posters-banners in Ayodhya and reiterated that Aditya's visit will be only for Lord Ram's darshan.

The estranged brother of Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray's proposed pilgrimage to Ayodhya has raised the heckles of BJP MP Brijbhushan Singh, who has threatened to stop him from entering the holy city unless he apologies for the treatment meted out by the MNS to North Indians in the past.

The Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress have asked the Maharashtra BJP to clarify it's stance in view of the Opposition to Raj Thackeray by its own unit in Uttar Pradesh.

The MNS last week kicked off a row after it started a campaign to remove all mosque loudspeakers, creating tense moments for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

However, it apparently fizzled out quickly as mosques complied on their own by muting or yanking off loudspeakers while Hindu places of worship complained they were also hit by the MNS ban.

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