MNS opposed to renaming Shivaji Park

The Raj Thackeray-led MNS today said that it was opposed to Shiv Sena's move to rename the historic Shivaji Park in Mumbai as 'Shiv Tirth'.

The Raj Thackeray-led MNS on Monday said that it was opposed to Shiv Sena's move to rename the historic Shivaji Park in Mumbai as 'Shiv Tirth'.

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Making his party's stand clear, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena corporator and group leader in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Dilip Lande said that "Shiv Sena should not try to pass the proposal because it has the numbers in the civic body. We will strongly oppose renaming of Shivaji Park as 'Shiv Tirth'," he said.

"If the late Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray had to rename Shivaji Park as 'Shiv Tirth', he would have done it when the Sena-BJP alliance came to power in the state in 1995 or when the Sena took control of the BMC in 1997. However, he did not do that," Lande observed.

Meanwhile, BJP, Sena's alliance partner in the BMC, remained non-committal on the issue and refrained from taking any stand.

When asked about the renaming issue, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde said, "I do not want to comment anything on the matter."

He, however, said that a memorial for Balasaheb Thackeray should be constructed and BJP would strive for it.

On Sunday, the state unit of the Congress had also opposed the proposal to rename the park.