The strife between rival Shiv Sena factions boiled over after six Sena partymen loyal to the Uddhav Thackeray faction were arrested by the Pune police on Wednesday in connection with an attack on ‘rebel’ MLA and former Maharashtra Minister Uday Samant.
While five of the accused, including Sena Pune city chief Sanjay More (an Uddhav camp loyalist) were from Pune, a Hingoli-based leader Baban Thorat was detained in Mumbai and brought to Pune.
All six were produced before a local court where they were remanded to a two-day police custody till August 6.
A case has been registered under Indian penal Code (IPC) sections 307 (attempt to murder) 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty) and other sections pertaining to rioting against 15 persons at Pune’s Bharati Vidyapeeth police station, said officials.
On Tuesday night, Mr. Samant’s car had been smashed in the city’s Katraj area where Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray was holding a public rally. Mr. Thackeray had spoken against the 40 rebel MLAs in the Eknath Shinde camp and their ‘betrayal’ of Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.
Both Aaditya Thackeray and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had been in the same area during the former’s public address on Tuesday.
According to Mr. Samant, the attack on his car was carried out in a pre-meditated fashion, with the MLA stating that he feared the real target may have been CM Shinde’s convoy.
“Around 10-15 youths steeped out from two cars near a signal in Katraj and started abusing me. Then, brandishing sticks and pelting stones, they began damaging my car… Some say they were youths from the rally [Aaditya Thackeray’s rally]. If so, what kind of rally is this where such weapons [hockey sticks, rods] are permitted? But I am not scared of such cowardly attacks,” said Mr. Samant, the former Minister of Higher and Technical Education in the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
Criticizing the Uddhav Thackeray camp for instigating and endorsing such violent actions, Mr. Samant demanded a thorough investigation into the affair.
He further chastised the senior leaders of the Thackeray faction, remarking that it was “very easy to instigate someone” in this fashion.
“While cases will be lodged against those who have been given stones or hockey sticks to assault us [rebel MLAs], their leaders [Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray] will conveniently fire from their shoulders while not having the courage to take us on from the front,” Mr. Samant said.
Responding to the Thackeray camp’s refrain that the 40 MLAs were ‘traitors’, Mr. Samant said that if the Shinde camp MLAs had indeed committed a mistake, then their electorates would punish them in the coming elections if they so felt their action (of breaking away from Uddhav Thackeray and forming an alliance with the BJP) had not been worthy.
“Ideas must be fought by ideas, and not violence…Uddhav Thackeray and his supporters can take his thoughts to the people. But this kind of action [assault of rebel MLAs] is unacceptable,” he said.
While the Shinde camp said the attack on Mr. Samant was “highly condemnable”, leaders in the Thackeray camp called it a “spontaneous reaction”.
“While nobody is condoning the assault [on Mr. Samant’s car], one must bear in mind that there is anger, not only among Shiv Sainiks, but the people of Maharashtra at the actions of the rebels. This [attack on Mr. Samant’s car] is a spontaneous reaction,” said veteran Sena leader and Uddhav camp loyalist Subhash Desai.
Another Thackeray loyalist Neelam Gorhe said there was “no connection” between the assault and Aaditya Thackeray’s rally while remarking that the rebels were trying to “defame” the Thackeray camp.
“In his speeches, Aaditya Thackeray had merely urged the rebels to go and face elections…he has never spoken anything remotely inflammatory in nature nor has instigated Shiv Sainiks against the rebels… This is nothing but an attempt to defame the Sena,” Ms. Gorhe said.
Meanwhile, amid the ongoing legal wrangles between the two factions in the Supreme Court, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray summoned a meeting of party cadre at his residence ‘Matoshree’ in Mumbai today.
Mr. Thackeray while there had been had attempts in the past to split the Shiv Sena, a concerted effort was currently on to finish-off the party.
Alluding to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J.P. Nadda’s recent statement that only an ideology-driven party like the BJP would survive in the near future while other regional, dynastic parties including the Sena would perish, Mr. Thackeray said the statement was proof of the BJP’s efforts to extirpate the Sena in the State.
