Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray Tuesday said his uncle and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had asked him to stop using his photos banners, at "the behest of someone else".
Without naming Sena executive president and cousin Udhav Thackeray, following differences with whom he had left Shiv Sena on the December 18, 2005, Raj said, "Somebody told Balasaheb to ask me to refrain from using his photo at my functions."
Addressing a public meeting in Mumbai on January 23 on his birthday, the Sena chief had asked Raj, who had left the party, not to use his photos in posters and other campaign material.
"Had it been Balasaheb's own idea, he would have himself told me so the very morning I went to greet him at his residence at suburan Bandra," Raj told reporters.
Raj said MNS, formally launched at a massive rally in Mumbai on March 19, will work towards development of Maharashtra.
He said he did not quit the Sena because he did not get the post of the executive president. "Everyone knows the reasons why I left that party," he added.
Raj also announced that due to his busy schedule, he would not be able to devote time for Shiv Udyog Sena, the outfit which he had launched during the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party rule in the state, for providing jobs to 27 lakh unemployed youth in the state.
SUS, which had organised concerts of melody queen Lata Mangeshkar and Michael Jackson in Mumbai to raise funds for helping unemployed youth, has so far provided jobs to over 3,000 youth, he said.
