Thane: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray led a protest march in Thane, the stronghold of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Wednesday to demand justice for a woman party worker who was allegedly attacked by the rival faction.
Walking along with Aaditya was Nationalist Congress Party MLA Jitendra Awhad as well as workers of the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP, in a show of strength by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties in Thane.
The march from Shivaji Maidan to Police Commissionerate was held a day after Aaditya along with his parents Uddhav and Rashmi Thackeray met Roshni Shinde, the Shiv Sena (UBT) woman worker, at a hospital in Thane city.
“We brought a lock (symbol of inactivity) with us today. Yesterday when our worker Roshni Shinde was attacked, Uddhav Thackeray came here. When he went to meet the commissioner, he ran away and didn’t meet him,” Aaditya told the rally, while calling Shinde “a traitor” yet again.
“Our worker who was on IVF treatment, was attacked by the workers of Eknath Shinde just for a post. No action has been taken, no FIR. … We expected the police to take strict action, but there was no one in the police station,” the Thackeray scion alleged.
A day earlier, two cases of criminal defamation were filed against Roshni after Sena leaders of the Eknath Shinde faction met police officers.
Later in the evening after addressing the party workers, Aaditya led a Sena (UBT) delegation to meet Thane Police Commissioner Jai Jeet Singh and submitted a memorandum to him.
Roshni was attacked Monday evening allegedly by workers of the rival Shiv Sena faction at Thane’s Kasarwadavali locality for her ‘derogatory’ Facebook post about the Maharashtra chief minister.
A video of the incident had gone viral, with many MVA leaders, including Awhad, tweeting the 34-second clip to claim poor law and order situation in Maharashtra.
ठाकरे गटाची रोषणी शिंदे हिला ठाण्यात शिंदे गटाकडून मारहाण
मला खात्री आहे काही होणार नाही .. न्यायची अपेक्षा सोडली ,…. सरकार कसे चालवायचे हे मुख्यमंत्री शिंदे यांच्या कडून शिकावे .. पोलिस खात्याचे अस्तित्वच नाही ठाण्यात … विचारले तर पोलिस सांगतात वरुन प्रेशर आहे .. वरुण म्हणजे? pic.twitter.com/pNQVOXcwHU— Dr.Jitendra Awhad (@Awhadspeaks) April 3, 2023
While leaders of the MVA claim that Roshni was on IVF treatment and pregnant, a doctor said that she had suffered from minor injuries and that there was no internal bleeding or major injury.
Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed law and order situation in the backdrop of the attack on her party worker.
“The commission of such an act must be strongly condemned and acted upon irrespective of the political ideologies. The recent incidents of use of abusive language against women, withdrawal of security of several members of Shiv Sena leaders along with death threats to Sanjay Raut are all indicative of the state of freedom of speech and political freedom in the state. Despite this, the state home minister continues in his position,” she wrote in her letter which she handed to Shah.
Battle in CM’s home ground
With the show of strength, the Thackerays have now taken the battle to the home ground of CM Eknath Shinde, who split the Shiv Sena into two groups and engineered the fall of the MVA government in June last year.
In Thane, Uddhav had attacked Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the portfolio of home affairs, saying that he was a “worthless” home minister.
“Maharashtra has got a worthless home minister. A helpless and servile man is the home minister. He was not ready to act when his own party men were attacked by the ‘Mindhe’ (a derogatory term Thackeray’s party uses for Eknath Shinde) group,” the former chief minister said Tuesday.
“Should one call him (Shinde) the chief minister, or a goonda mantri? I am not saying that, but the people will decide. They should have a minister in charge of the goonda department when they expand their Cabinet,” he added.
Fadnavis did not mince his words either as he said Uddhav had been a “weak” chief minister who sacrificed his ideology for power.
Roshni, meanwhile, claimed all she had done was to post a message on social media. “It was a regular message on social media. I was not targeting anyone personally. I also apologised for my comments in the messaging group at around 3 pm. But later in the evening, 20 to 25 men and women from the Shinde faction came to my workplace and started arguing with me. They then asked me to make an apology video. I did that too but they attacked me later,” she told the media from her hospital bed.
(Edited by Tony Rai)