After street clash in Thane, verbal sparring between two Senas heats up

While Union minister Narayan Rane warned Uddhav Thackeray that if he attacked BJP leaders, it would cost him dearly, Aaditya Thackeray termed the Shinde camp “a gang of traitors” who would go to jail once the MVA government was back in power

Mumbai: The slugfest between the BJP-Shiv Sena government and the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which escalated on Wednesday after a woman worker from the Sena (UBT) was allegedly attacked by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s party workers, shows no signs of abating. Leaders from both sides on Thursday engaged in a war of words that liberally combined abuse with threat.

Thane, India - April 05, 2023: Aaditya Thackeray during the Janprakshobh Morcha, a protest rally by MVA activists from Shivsena (UBT), NCP and Congress, against Thane Police for its failure to take action against the culprits who assaulted UBT woman activist Roshni Shinde, from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ground to Thane Police Commissionerate Office, in Thane, India, on Wednesday, April 05, 2023. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

While Union minister Narayan Rane warned Uddhav Thackeray that if he attacked BJP leaders, it would cost him dearly, Aaditya Thackeray termed the Shinde camp “a gang of traitors” who would go to jail once the MVA government was back in power. Meanwhile, Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi met Union home minister Amit Shah and demanded his intervention in the state’s law-and-order situation.

In the wake of the attack on Roshni Shinde, Thackeray had called Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis a ‘fadtus’ (useless) home minister. In a belated retaliation, Fadnavis declared that he was a ‘kadtus’ (bullet)—one, moreover, that did not bend but drilled holes in the target.

Union minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane, on his part, said that Thackeray was out (of jail) despite his doings and had remained out of the Enforcement Directorate’s clutches only because he was Bal Thackeray’s son. “If he does not keep mum in future, it will cost him dearly,” he said. “He will not be allowed to step out of his house. His future was safeguarded by his father, but he has spoiled the future of his son Aaditya.”

The Thackeray faction took an aggressive stand in the Roshni attack case in Thane and staged a protest under the leadership of Aaditya on Wednesday in Thane against police inaction in the case. NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad and Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare from Thane participated.

Aaditya came down heavily on the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena for attacking political workers and women and announced that the MVA would hold a ‘Nari Sanmaan Yatra’ in every district of Maharashtra to protest the rising violence against women in the state. He also said that the time had come to say ‘Quit Maharashtra’ to the Shinde-Fadnavis government.

“The political culture of Maharashtra has sunk to an all-time low,” he said. “In the last nine months of the Shinde-Fadnavis government, violence against women has increased in the state. Leaders from the Shinde faction have been using foul language for female Opposition leaders like MP Supriya Sule and Sushma Andhare, and now his supporters have attacked Roshni Shinde brutally. Thane was known as the city of cultured people but Shinde’s politics has defamed the city within one day. It is like Mughal rule has taken over the state. It feels like the Gujarat CM is ruling our state.”

Aaditya warned that the Shinde government would not last long, and once the MVA came back to power, it would set up inquiry commissions and ensure that all the culprits went to jail. He also dared Shinde to fight an election against him in Thane. “This government has no respect for the Constitution or women,” he said. “We will fight to save democracy and the Constitution, and win.”

CM Shinde averred that hooliganism had reached its peak in Thackeray’s regime. “Thackeray has crossed all limits by calling Fadnavis useless,” he said. “It is not his place to criticise Fadnavis, who has risen from being a corporator to chief minister and deputy chief minister. Thackeray should not cross his limits or else we will have to open our mouths.”

Meanwhile, Thackeray faction MP Priyanka Chaturvedi requested Union home minister Amit Shah to intervene, saying the Centre should ensure that political differences were not misused as tools for political vendetta and authoritarianism. “In a democracy like India where various ideologies and groups co-exist, resorting to such means for political gain, especially against women, is a matter of shame and grave concern,” said Chaturvedi in a letter to Shah.