Amruta Fadnavis vs Sena: TMC to shift Bank accounts

The Shiv Sena-ruled Thane Municipal Corporation has decided to shift its salary accounts from Axis Bank to a nationalized bank, a civic official said.

Thane Mayor Naresh Mhaske, in a meeting on Thursday, directed officials to shift the accounts from Axis Bank to a nationalized bank, the official said.

The development follows a war of words on social media between the Shiv Sena and Amruta Fadnavis - wife of former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis - who holds a senior position at the Axis Bank.

The development comes amid reports that Axis bank may lose Maharashtra police departments salary accounts, worth Rs 11,000 crore annually, with the Uddhav Thackeray-led regime mulling to transfer them to a public sector bank.

The Twitter spat between the banker wife of Fadnavis and Shiv Sena deputy leader Priyanka Chaturvedi has become the latest talking point in state political circles.

It all began with a tweet by Amruta Fadnavis who attacked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray while responding to her husband's tweet to condemn Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his "My name is not Rahul Savarkar" remark.

Fadnavis had said Rahul Gandhi was nowhere close to even a single deed of Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar.

Taking a cue from her husband's comment, Amruta Fadnavis on Sunday taunted the Shiv Sena president, saying one cannot be a 'Thackeray' just by putting Thackeray after his name.

Hitting back, Chaturvedi on Monday said Thackeray was living up to his name and Amruta Fadnavis was missing the point.

Targeting Amruta Fadnavis, Shiv Sena corporator Amey Ghole equated her with Anandibai, infamous in Maharashtra's history for plotting the death of her 17-year-old nephew Peshwa Narayanrao. Her husband Raghunathrao was next in line for the throne at the time of Narayanrao's death.

When his reaction was sought on the issue, Devendra Fadnavis had said some political workers stooped very low to troll his wife, who he said is an independent personality.

Earlier this month, a war of words erupted between Chaturvedi and Amruta Fadnavis on social media over media reports that the Uddhav Thackeray government was planning to cut down around 1,000 trees in Aurangabad to build a memorial for Bal Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress formed the government in Maharashtra last month after the Thackeray-led party parted ways with pre-poll ally BJP over sharing the chief ministerial post.