Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and Nana Patole.
Leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance have announced a protest march on September 1 against the demolition of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg. Leaders including Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole will march from Hutatma Chowk near Gateway of India in Mumbai to the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at 11 am. I am on Sunday.
On behalf of MVA, the movement has been named ‘Juta Maro Andolan’. Meanwhile, all major opposition leaders including NCP (Sharad Chandra Pawar) president Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Congress state president Nana Patole will be present.
On behalf of Mahavikas Aghadi, Uddhav Thackeray has appealed to Shiv Sainiks to join. On this day, MVA will march from Hutatma Chowk to Gateway of India.
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Politics has heated up over the demolition of Shivaji’s statue
A 35-feet tall statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg on Navy Day last December, collapsed on Monday afternoon.
Earlier on Wednesday, Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Nana Patole and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut held a meeting at Uddhav’s residence. Uddhav alleged irregularities and corruption in the construction of the statue and said that both the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led government and the navy were responsible for the incident.
Shinde government on the backfoot, apologized
Sharad Pawar said that the state government cannot deny its responsibilities as all the permissions were taken from the state authorities. BJP Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar hit out at Uddhav Thackeray, calling him a “vulture” who looks for food when someone dies.
He further said that Uddhav was a member of the “Aurangzeb fan club” and was not speaking about other illegal encroachments by “certain communities”. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that an investigation is underway into the incident of the statue falling.
At the same time, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and CM Eknath Shinde have apologized over the issue and said that a grand statue of Shivaji will be built soon. He said that the opposition should not give a political color to the issue, as Shivaji Maharaj is the Lord of all of us and he is working on the path shown by him.
