By Venkatesh Raghavan
Mumbai: Fistfights erupted between the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ranks and the Opposition MLAs from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on the stairs of the Maharashtra State Assembly building following prolonged chanting of slogans against corruption in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that was controlled and ruled by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction.
The fistfights that broke out began with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Sena camp MLA Mahesh Shinde trading blows with NCP MLC Amol Mitkari on the steps of the assembly edifice. Before it turned any fiercer, other legislators from both camps intervened in a timely manner and restored normalcy.
It was learnt that the prolonged sloganeering against Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray for the alleged rampant corruption that was taking place in the civic body fuelled the violence soon after the Opposition legislators approached the protestors from the treasury benches. MLAs from the Shinde camp later cited that the opposition ranks should not have attempted physically intimidating proximity when they were chanting slogans peacefully. They also cited that in previous instances, when the Opposition MLAs were chanting slogans, none intervened and it passed off in a peaceful manner.
After the fisting bouts were brought to rest, MLAs from both camps continued shouting slogans against each other before they proceeded to attend the affairs of the assembly. The story of arguments that turned into an ugly fist fight was set to rest as the Maharashtra assembly is slated to conclude its monsoon session by the coming Thursday.
CM Shinde’s camp having hostilities with the opposition MLAs date back to June this year, when a group of 39 Sena MLAs revolted against former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government, toppling the Sena-NCP-Congress coalition that was in power at that time. At that point in time, talks were also doing the rounds that the rebels might require security cover to survive a likely grass root level attack from Uddhav’s Sena workers.
The cause of the tinder works at the assembly today mainly pertained to serious allegations levelled against the Thackerays over rampant corruption in the civic body’s Standing Committee.
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