Reports of violence and protests against rebel legislators came in from a dozen places across Maharashtra over the last few days as Shiv Sena workers vented their ire against the Eknath Shinde group.
On Saturday, a group of irate Shiv Sainiks damaged the board of a party office Shinde’s son and Kalyan MP Dr Shrikant Shinde.
“We are silent only because of Eknath Shinde or else we also know how to retaliate,” the Kalyan MP said, staging a massive show of strength in his family bastion of Thane city, which adjoins Mumbai.
Reports of vandalisation of offices and blackening of posters came from Pune, Nashik, Kolhapur and Parbhani.
In Mumbai, when Shiv Sena President and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray arrived at the Shiv Sena Bhavan, party workers demanded action against Shinde and the rebels and raised slogans against them.
Offices of legislator Dilip Lande and Tanaji Sawant were vandalised in Mumbai and Pune respectively. A board containing a photo of Mangesh Kudalkar was damaged. Mumbai Police extended Section 144 CrPC (prohibitory orders) in the wake of the developing political situation.
In the wake of the violent incidents, Shinde-camp spokesperson Deepak Kesarkar urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to intervene. “This must stop. This is my appeal to the Chief Minister who is a sensitive person,” he said.
Earlier in the day, 16 rebels shot off a letter to Thackeray complaining about the security of their families being withdrawn, a charge vehemently denied by state’s Home Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil.
In the letter, the Shinde group has referred to the killing of Punjabi rapper and Congressman Sidhu Moose Wala.
“It will not be out of place to mention that recently the same scenario had happened in the state of Punjab also where security of several high profile persona was removed by the state government. Due to this, high profile people became targets of gangsters/goons in the state and the withdrawal of security from MLAs is likely to create a similar impact in the state of Maharashtra as well,” the letter states.
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