Don’t let IT cell of a political party use your Twitter handle: Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut tells actor Kangana Ranaut

The spat between actor Kangana Ranaut and Shiv Sena continued on Saturday with party MP Sanjay Raut telling her to use her own Twitter handle and not tweet through the IT cell of a political party.

The spat between actor Kangana Ranaut and Shiv Sena continued on Saturday with party MP Sanjay Raut telling her to use her own Twitter handle and not tweet through the IT cell of a political party. “One needs to use their Twitter handle themselves, instead of allowing the IT cell of a political party to do so,” said Raut.

Actor Kangana Ranaut (File photo)

The Shiv Sena and Congress have alleged that the BJP IT cell is behind Ranaut’s Twitter account. BJP, however, has distanced itself from the actor’s remarks, saying it “does not subscribe to anti-Mumbai or anti-Maharashtra sentiments”.

The controversy erupted after Ranaut on Thursday tweeted that Raut had issued an “open threat” to her to not return to the city if she had no faith in the Mumbai Police. “Sanjay Raut Shiv Sena leader has given me an open threat and asked me not to come back to Mumbai, after Aazadi graffitis in Mumbai streets and now open threats, why Mumbai is feeling like Pakistan occupied Kashmir?” she had tweeted.

The comment sparked a political row, with Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Friday saying “she has no right to stay in Mumbai”. The minister had said, “Mumbai Police is compared to Scotland Yard. Some people are trying to target Mumbai Police. After her uncalled-for remarks over Mumbai Police, she has no right to live in Maharashtra or Mumbai.”

Deshmukh also evaded a question on Raut’s demand that the home ministry should act against Ranaut for casting aspersions over the credibility of Mumbai Police.

Meanwhile, Sena legislator Pratap Sarnaik reiterated on Saturday that Sena women workers will slap Ranaut when she arrives in Mumbai and he was willing to go to jail for this act.

The National Commission for Woman (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Friday had demanded the arrest of Sarnaik. Sarnaik said that Ranaut had insulted Maharashtra with her PoK remarks. “This issue concerns the pride of Maharashtra and there will be no compromise on this front. Ranaut needs to apologise for her PoK remarks or else she will face the music from our women’s wing,” said Sarnaik.

Sena workers held demonstrations across the state and key leaders continued their tirade against Ranaut.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had on Friday threatened to file a case against Ranaut for “anti-national activity”, on Saturday called the whole controversy as diversionary tactics adopted by the Sena for covering its government’s failure to handle the Covid-19 pandemic. “She [Kangana] is just hungry for publicity and I cannot understand why so much importance is given by the Sena to her. This seems to us a tactic to divert attention from its mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande.

(Inputs from Pradip Kumar Maitra)