Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut claimed on Thursday that after Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Bal Thackeray was the one who championed Hindutva in Indian politics, and now some people were trying to follow the suit. 

January 23 is the birth anniversary of the late Shiv Sena founder. 
Speaking to reporters here, Raut said Thackeray did not hold any government post, but he conducted himself like Greek king Alexander. 

"He united people and inspired them to fight. After Veer Savarkar, it was Bal Thackeray who lit the flame of hardline Hindutva," he said. 

"Some people are trying to follow the suit. But there is no match for the Shiv Sena and Bal Thackeray," he said, in an apparent swipe at the BJP, the Sena's former ally.