Export-import material will take down BJP: Raut over Shiv Sena Bhavan remark

The Shiv Sena also cornered the BJP in its editorial mouthpiece Saamana. "The end is near for the BJP in Maharashtra because of the way they are behaving. Whosoever has looked scornfully towards Shiv Sena Bhavan, their leaders and their party were washed away in the gutter of Worli," the editorial said.

Tempers continue to run high over the remarks made by Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party leader Prasad Lad, who threatened to demolish the ruling Shiv Sena's office in Mumbai and apologised. Charging at the BJP, Sena lawmaker Sanjay Raut on Monday said his party will not accept Lad's apology.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut speaks in Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (ANI Photo/ RSTV)

"The BJP can never think of attacking the Shiv Sena Bhavan. These people are not from the BJP. There are some outsiders, some export-import material. These people will take down the BJP in Maharashtra. We will not accept this apology," Raut was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The Shiv Sena also cornered the BJP in its editorial mouthpiece Saamana. "The end is near for the BJP in Maharashtra because of the way they are behaving. Whosoever has looked scornfully towards Shiv Sena Bhavan, their leaders and their party were washed away in the gutter of Worli," the editorial said.

The Maharashtra ruling party further attacked the BJP and said that it was once a party of loyal workers, connected to the grassroots. "There was no place here for outsiders or the degenerates. But now people with the original ideology of the party are pushing forward lowly people. That is why the end of the party is nearing," the editorial read.

The Saamana editorial also said that comments like "Shiv Sena Bhavan todenge" and people clapping on the remark amount to treachery against Marathi pride.

Lad's remarks came under censure from Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who said that the Shiv Sena has started responding to criticism with "tight slaps".

"We are now used to hearing criticism but we are not scared of criticism anymore... We have started responding well and strongly to those criticisms, we have started slapping back. We will give such tight slaps, that the other person will never get up," Thackeray said.

Lad, who also received flak for his remarks from other leaders from Maharashtra, later explained that he was referring to the heavy police deployment and about not attacking the Shiv Sena Bhavan.

"Yesterday, our office was being inaugurated in Mahim. I had received phone calls from many police personnel who requested that Nitesh Rane and I shouldn't go there or at least not take out a rally if we go," Lad said, reported news agency ANI.

"In my address, I had said that when we come to Dadar-Mahim, then such huge police security is deployed here as if we are going to attack Shiv Sena Bhawan. I have apologised for the statement," Lad explained.