Point made,Athawle asks cadres to stop anti-MNS protests

Athawle alleged that women workers of his party were manhandled by MNS workers. “It is ironical that while the MNS rally was organised to protest against alleged misbehaviour with Marathi policewomen,workers of the same party misbehaved with our Marathi women party workers who were protesting peacefully outside their office. An MNS corporator named Sandeep Deshpande even hit one of the girls,” he said.

Athawle added that now that enough effigies of Thackeray had been burnt,he had asked his party workers to stop the protests. Reiterating his commitment towards the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI (A) alliance,Athawle said that despite losing seats in previous elections,he would contest the 2014 state assembly polls with the same allies.

“It is true that we have not been able to convert the seats that we contest into victories. But that is because we are allocated seats at the last moment. This time we have asked for our seats well in advance so that we can find good candidates and have a good chance of winning,” he said. Party secretary Arjun Dangle said that talks with BJP and Shiv Sena leaders on the election strategy would be held either this month or early next month.