Journalism of Courage
Radical Hindu outfit, the Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS), which has registered itself as a political party, will contest the Assembly elections for the first time.
HRS will be fielding Rasika Desai, the wife of its chief Dhananjay Desai, from the communally sensitive Hadapsar constituency in Pune for the October 15 Assembly elections.
Dhananjay alias Bhai is among the 21 HRS activists arrested by the Pune police in connection with the murder of a 28-year-old Muslim techie Moshin Sadiq Shaikh in Hadapsar on June 2, 2014, following the communal clashes that started after derogatory pictures of Maratha King Shivaji and Bal Thackeray were uploaded on a Facebook (FB) profile.
At a press conference Saturday, Desai’s sister and vice-president of HRS, Rupali Marathe, announced Rasika’s candidature for Hadapsar. “About 30 more activists would be contesting elections from various constituencies in Pune, Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Sambhaji Nagar, Kolhaopur, Thane and Mumbai. Our party symbol will be Shankha (sea shell). We are conducting interviews of aspirants. We will declare the names of our candidates next week. Hindtuva will be our main agenda for the elections,” Marathe said.
“HRS used to support parties like Shiv Sena and BJP in the past for the cause of Hindutva. HRS chief Dhananjay Desai had held about 100 public rallies for Sena-BJP candidates during the Lok Sabha election campaign earlier this year.
“Even in the past, we have strongly supported the saffron parties. But we have observed that after getting elected, these political parties keep aside the issues related to Hindutva,” Marathe said.
“Dhananjay is a staunch Hindu. He started HRS at the age of 14 years. We are proud of him,” Marathe said.
Sagar Sonawane, the executive committee member of HRS, said, “We are contesting elections in constituencies were we have a strong network. We would declare our Vijaynama at the HRS headquarters in Mumbai in a couple of days.”
Leaders from other political parties said that while the HRS did not have potential to win elections, they could cause tension by aggressive Hindutva campaign.
Meanwhile, police are taking the HRS seriously in the view of communal clashes. Sources said activities of radical Hindu and Muslim outfits are on a rise in the Hadapsar area after the murder of Mohsin Shaikh.
