Shelar likens attacks on non-Marathi speakers in Mumbai to Pahalgam attack

The remark comes amid heightened tensions following multiple incidents in Mumbai where workers of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) attacked shopkeepers and migrant workers allegedly for speaking Hindi instead of Marathi.

The BJP leader also called the recent coming together of former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and his cousin Raj Thackeray an “opportunistic alliance”.

“Uddhav cannot survive without power. He left the BJP when he didn’t get the CM’s chair and now seeks a BMC seat by any means necessary,” he alleged.

Shelar said the BJP would protect the interests of both Marathi speakers and Hindus but would do so through “development politics, not hatred”.

The Pahalgam attack on April 22 claimed 26 lives.

Lashing out at Shelar, Shiv Sena UBT MLA Aaditya Thackeray said, “There is a lot of poison in BJP’s mind when it comes to Maharashtra.

Today, the BJP has compared Maharashtra to the terrorists in Pahalgam attack — the terrorists whom the BJP could not catch or stop. It has been three months since the Pahalgam incident, but where did those terrorists go? Nobody knows whether they fled to Pakistan or joined the BJP. But comparing them to Maharashtra shows the malice and poison that the BJP has for the state.”