My son not a rocket to be launched, says Raj Thackeray

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray Friday rubbished reports that his son would join politics with the party's student wing serving as a launch-pad, saying his son was "not a rocket to be launched".

"My son Amit is not a rocket which can be launched! He will enter politics when the time is right," he said.

Thackeray, accompanied by Amit, attended a meeting of the MNS youth wing Friday afternoon where he appealed the gathering to believe him and not media reports.

His assertion came in the wake of reports by a section of the media that Amit Thackeray would be entering politics through the party's youth wing route, like his second cousin, Aditya Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

Raj Thackeray also asked his partymen to exercise caution against the "excessive" use of social media and technology and not to get "carried away" by it for the upcoming state assembly polls.

He noted that the social media's charms were now lost on the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and now people have started criticizing the party on various social media fora for broken promises.

The BJP and Modi made extensive use of social media platforms like Twitter, blogs and Facebook to campaign, air views and inform the voters before the last Lok Sabha elections, which reaped rich political dividends for the party.