Maharashtra's opposition alliance, Maha Vikas Aghadi has announced to hold a march on September 1 over rising cases of atrocities against women and crashing of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji.
The MVA has been training guns on the Mahayuti government after a 35-foot statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg on December 4 last year, collapsed on Monday afternoon.
The decision to take out the march was taken during a meeting of Maha Vikas Aghadi on Wednesday at Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray's Mumbai residence, Matoshree.
"MVA will take out a march in Mumbai on September 1 to protest against the collapse of Shivaji Maharaj's statue," Thackeray said.
"The atrocities on women and corruption in the state are crossing all limits. The leaders of all three parties came together and discussed these issues. Two days ago people saw how the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj fell and what kind of statements people are making. Rajya Bhavan is on the seashore but even the Governor's hat never flew and they say that the statue of Shivaji Maharaj fell due to strong winds, how is this possible," he added.
Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut lashed out at Maharashtra minister Deepak Kesarkar over his statement on the statue collapse.
"Joote maarne chahiye usko," (Kesarkar should be beaten with shoes), Raut said while speaking to reporters.
If Devendra Fadnavis is really a follower of Shivaji, then Kesarkar should be beaten with shoes in front of Mantralaya.
Raut made the statement in reference to Kesarkar's remark over the crashing of the statue where he said that good things will happen as people will now demand a 100-foot statue of the 17th century Maratha empire founder.