MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Wednesday said the recent elections for the posts of president and vice president of Satara Zilla Parishad (ZP) elections have pulled back the curtain on the internal friction within Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti transforming what was meant to be a display of political solidarity into a scene of physical violence and chaos.
"What was supposed to be a standard democratic process devolved into a 'comedy drama' reminiscent of the old Marathi film 'Ashi Hi Sataryachi Tanha' (This is the Way of Satara), but with a much darker tone. Witnesses reported a significant physical altercation between ministers who publicly present themselves as 'brothers' in the same government, ' said the Shiv Sena(UBT) in 'Saamana'.
The Thackeray camp, in a scathing editorial in the party's mouthpiece, said Shiv Sena Minister Shambhuraj Desai was reportedly roughed up by police personnel acting under the orders of a rival faction within his own alliance. Desai arrived at the legislature visibly injured, claiming that the police had dragged him and that "democracy has been murdered".
“Despite the Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions holding a clear majority, BJP Ministers Shivendraraje and Jaykumar Gore reportedly executed a localised "Operation Lotus”, it claimed.