Shiv Sainiks up in arms against removal of Thackeray’s picture

NASHIK, April 29: Shiv Sainiks led by their city unit President Datta Gaikwad and vice-president of their district unit Sunil Bagul staged r...

NASHIK, April 29: Shiv Sainiks led by their city unit President Datta Gaikwad and vice-president of their district unit Sunil Bagul staged rasta roko in various parts of Nashik this afternoon, to protest against Mayor Ashok Dive, who has removed photographs of Sena chief Bal Thackeray from the mayoral bungalow and the Nashik Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) budget booklet.

Photographs of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee have also been removed from the mayor’s bungalow while the budget booklet now bears photographs of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the late Rajiv Gandhi.

About 40 Shiv Sainiks were arrested for blocking traffic on the old Mumbai-Agra Road and the Sharanpur Road. Similar agitations were held in Satpur and Gangapur Road. The Sainiks were protesting against the removal of Thackeray’s photographs from the mayor’s official residence, "Ramayan", whereas these had been displayed prominently during the tenure of his predecessor, Vasant Gite.

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Pictures of the Sena chiefhave also been knocked off the budget booklet published by the corporation’s Standing Committee, whose chairperson, Shahu Khaire, is a Congressman.

Gaikwad says the Sena will press for Dive’s resignation, with the latter already having angered the ruling saffron alliance following his decision as Nashik’s first citizen to welcome Sonia Gandhi on her arrival for the party’s convention on May 6.

The RJD’s key face and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tejashwi Yadav, party supremo Lalu Yadav’s son, will again contest from his stronghold Raghopur.

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