MNS chief Raj Thackeray's hip bone surgery, scheduled on Wednesday, was deferred after dead cells of novel coronavirus were found in his blood, a party spokesperson said.

Doctors (at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai) informed Thackeray and his relatives that he could not be given anaesthesia because of the presence of dead cells of coronavirus in his blood. Hence the surgery has to be rescheduled to the next week. The date will be finalised as per the availability of doctors and Thackeray, he said.

The doctors decided not to go ahead with the scheduled surgery on Wednesday morning and asked Thackeray to visit the hospital after a gap of eight days, the spokesperson said.

In the last week of May, Thackeray announced that he was putting off his visit to Ayodhya, scheduled for the first week of June, in view of the surgery.