Angry supporters of Udayanraje Bhosale stage Satara bandh denouncing Sanjay Raut’s ‘proof’ remark against the royal heir

Pune: Enraged supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Satara, Udayanraje Bhosale forced a near total Satara bandh on Thursday in protest against Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut who had demanded ‘proof’ of whether he (Bhosale) was indeed a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Supporters of Bhosale took out procession of two donkeys with photos of Raut and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and State Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad, were strung across their necks. There is a sizeable following for the royal heir in Satara city.

“Who does he (Raut) think who he is? What does he hope to prove by his over smart remarks? His arrogance knows no bounds. Chief Minister and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray ought to keep his (Raut’s) tongue in check. We will not let him enter this city unless he publicly retracts his remarks against Udayanraje,” remarked a loyal Bhosale supporter. Amid heavy police deployment, shops and establishments had downed their shutters out of fear of any untoward incident.

BJP activists held protests against Raut in Mumbai, Ahmednagar and other parts of the State while BJP MLA from Ghatkopar, Ram Kadam, demanded that the police lodge a case against Raut and arrest the Sena MP.

Demanding that Raut take back his controversial remarks and publicly apologise, Kadam remarked “his (Raut’s) remarks are truly unfortunate given that the Sena has played politics in this State using Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s name for the past 50 years… First Sanjay Raut jettisoned his ‘Hindutva’ ideals because of his greed of power (by allying with the ideologically opposed Congress- NCP), then he remained silent on the Savarkar row and now he has given up his love for Shivaji Maharaj and hurt the sentiments of his followers by casting doubts on whether Bhosale is indeed a descendant of the Chhatrapati or not,” said Kadam.

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Pro-Maratha outfits, too, came out in Bhosale’s support by lashing out at Raut.

Aabasaheb Patil, chief coordinator of the ‘Maratha Kranti Thok Morcha’, demanded the Sena leader apologize within the next 24 hours.

“Instead of criticizing Goyal, he (Raut) is needlessly and in a most disrespectful manner attacking the royal throne of the Chhatrapati…we will not forgive anybody who insults a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji in this manner,” Patil warned. He further urged Chief Minister Thackeray to rein in his party leaders or else the pro-Maratha outfit would be compelled to take to the streets in protest.

Raut made his controversial remarks against Udayanraje Bhosale, the 13th direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at an event organized by a vernacular newspaper in Pune on Wednesday. The statements of the Sena MP, who is editor of his party’s mouthpiece Saamana, has ensured the continuation of the row over the booklet Aaj ke Shivaji: Narendra Modi penned by BJP leader Jai Bhagwan Goyal.

Soon after the release of this controversial booklet likening Modi to a ‘latter-day King Shivaji’, Raut has questioned the ‘silence’ of the Chhatrapati’s descendants who were part of the BJP.

In retaliation, Bhosale, while criticizing Goyal’s book, tore into the Sena, wanting to know as to why the Sena founder, Balasaheb Thackeray’s photo was placed above that of the Maratha king at the Sena Bhavan, the party’s headquarters, in Dadar.

Bhosale had further remarked that when the Sena leaders had named their party as the ‘Shiv Sena’ using Shivaji Maharaj’s name, they had never bothered to ask Shivaji’s descendants at that time. Accordingly, Bhosale had caustically said that the Sena ought to drop the ‘Shiv’ from their party name and instead rename their outfit as ‘Thackeray Sena’.