Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray has played it tricky again. Delivering a 40-minute speech on Sunday morning in Pune, he slammed his cousin, Uddhav Thackeray and his Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners, and tried to erase an allegation that he was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) puppet.

He claimed that he saw many hidden hands coming together to arrest his party workers during his Ayodhya visit and let them rot in jail while elections are held in Maharashtra. He said the powers were hit hard by his Hindutva, and he didn’t want his workers to rot in jails in Uttar Pradesh after clashing with the opponents. Raj kept party workers guessing about his Ayodhya baiters who have acted behind the scenes, without making the MNS rank and file realise that their leader was unlikely to take up a tour of Ayodhya after his surgery and soon later. But one realisation was there: the MNS may have taken up a solo run.