Mumbai: The shocking incident where a BJP MLA shot and injured a leader of Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde faction inside a police station in Thane has turned into a major political issue in Maharashtra with the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) slamming the state government raising serious concerns over the current law and order situation here.
Opposition leader Vijay Wadettiwar, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut and NCP MP Supriya Sule have all criticised the government. Condemning the incident, Wadettiwar said the MLA who resorted to firing belongs to the home minister's party. He said that Maharashtra has never witnessed such a shocking incident.
"The BJP boss is sitting at Sagar bungalow and the Shinde group boss at Varsha bungalow. Where is the law and order in the state? What are the police doing?" Wadettiwar questioned.
Slamming the government, Congress leader Ashok Chavan termed the incident "extremely serious" and "alarming". "This is not only a challenge to the existing law and order, but has raised a big question mark on the credibility of the state government to administer justice," Chavan said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut demanded Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's resignation saying the BJP MLA has openly confessed that Shinde forced him to shoot. "The Chief Minister's office has become a den of goons. I fear such incidents may happen in the other departments as well," he added.
Meanwhile, BJP's deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has ordered an inquiry into the shootout. Earlier, Ganpat Gaikwad, the accused MLA who was arrested after the incident said that Shinde is creating a 'kingdom of criminals' and had said that he was forced to fire as his son was being beaten infront of cops inside the police station.
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