The Shiv Sena is fighting against those who plan to divide the country by causing riots in the name of Hanuman Chalisa, and party founder, late Bal Thackeray, would have been happy with the party cadres for resisting such attempts, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

Raut made the comments a day after Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey took a potshot at the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government over 'arresting people for reciting Hanuman Chalisa'. "Of late, I have seen here that arrests were made for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa or taking the name of Lord Ram. The soul of Thackeray saheb (late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray) would have been hurt," Choubey, a BJP leader, had told reporters in Pune. Independent MP from Amravati Navneet Rana and her husband and independent MLA Ravi Rana had announced that they would recite Hanuman Chalisa in front of Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' in Mumbai on last Saturday.