BATTLE ZONE MUMBAI

The cold war between the BJP and Shiv Sena is likely to escalate as elections near for the 15 major municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including Mumbai. The friends-turned-foes are busy scoring points against each other at a time when the state still faces a crisis on the Covid-19 pandemic front.

- Kiran D. Tare

The ruling Shiv Sena fired the first salvo when the Maharashtra police arrested Narayan Rane, the Union minister for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), on August 24 in Ratnagiri for allegedly making derogatory remarks against chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. The district judge in Raigad sent him to judicial custody but granted bail the same night. The ex-Sena strongman and former Maharashtra chief minister, who joined the BJP in 2019, had embarked on a 10 day-long ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ from Mumbai to Sindhudurg on August 18. On August 23, while talking to reporters in Mahad (Raigad district), he had mocked Thackeray for being ignorant about the country’s 75th year of independence. “While delivering his speech, he (Thackeray) turned to the chief secretary and asked which Independence Day it was. If I had been there, I would have given him a tight slap,” were Rane’s exact comments.

Relations between the Shiv Sena and BJP have hit a new low since then. In a rare show of violent indignation, Sena workers pelted stones at the BJP office in Nashik. All over the state, Sena workers have also put up hoardings calling Rane ‘kombdi chor (chicken thief)’, a belittling term they use for the Union minister since he used to run a chicken shop in his younger days in Mumbai. In retaliation, BJP workers have put up hoardings in the city calling Thackeray a ‘