Amravati MP Navneet Rana on Saturday took a dig at former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray as the Eknath Shinde faction retained the Shiv Sena party name and symbol as per Election Commission’s order. Lauding the order in a video posted by news agency ANI, Rana said that Thackeray is “paying for all the atrocities he has done against us and other MLAs.”
“Jo Ram ka nahi jo Hanuman ka nahi, wo kisi kaam ka nahi aur Dhanush-Baan unka nahi (The one who is not Lord Ram’s or Lord Hanuman’s, he is useless and bow and arrow does not belong to him”, Rana said – in a reference to last year’s ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ row.
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The Amravati MP added, “Yesterday, Uddhav Thackeray received Lord Shiva’s prasad.”
Notably, Rana and her husband Ravi were arrested by the Mumbai police in April last year after they called to chant the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ in front of Uddhav Thackeray’s family residence ‘Matoshree’. The couple was first sent to 14-day judicial custody and later Navneet Rana was sent to Byculla women’s jail on the orders of the local magistrate. A month later, a special court had granted them bail.
In a big blow to Thackeray, the Election Commission on Friday allotted the Balasaheb Thackeray-founded Shiv Sena’s party name and symbol to the Shinde faction. According to reports, the Uddhav camp is likely to move the Supreme Court against the EC’s order.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Uddhav Thackeray called the Shinde faction ‘thieves’ and alleged that “PM Modi needs the mask of Balasaheb Thackeray to come to Maharashtra”.
“I would like to say that they want the face of Balasaheb Thackeray, and the election symbol but they don’t want the family of Shiv Sena. People of the state know which face is real and which is not,” he said.