Loudspeaker row in Maharashtra deepens with Raj Thackeray's deadline

Mumbai: Mumbai police will have a hard time maintaining law and order in the industrial capital as the row over Hanuman Chalisa is likely to get out of hand, reports say.

This is all the more so after MNS president Raj Thackeray set May 3 as the deadline to remove loudspeakers from mosques.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray asked his supporters to play Hanuman Chalisa in places where loudspeakers let out Azaan on Wednesday.

MNS had said that Hanuman Chalisa would be played on loudspeakers unless amplifiers were removed from mosques.

Maharashtra is governed by an alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.

The controversy allegedly had been triggered by independent Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana.

The couple was arrested on April 23 for allegedly "creating enmity between different groups" after they threatened to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's residence.

The ruling MVA government views the controversy as a move to destabilise the government.

Addressing a rally on May 1 in Aurangabad, Raj Thackeray said if loudspeakers were not removed from mosques by Wednesday, Hanuman Chalisa would be played at 'double power' outside the establishments, according to India Today.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj is facing a case for his "inflammatory speech" .

The BJP has reportedly thrown its weight behind Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the Rana couple.