Nagpur: Members of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra staged a demonstration in the legislature complex here on Thursday and demanded an inquiry into Lok Sabha member Rahul Shewale's claim of several phone calls from a person with 'AU' initials to actress Rhea Chakraborty, the girlfriend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Shewale, who belongs to the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, had on Wednesday flagged in the Lok Sabha the issue of the alleged suicide of Rajput and asked about the status of the CBI's inquiry into his death. Legislator Pratap Sarnaik, also part of the Shinde camp, on Thursday said Shewale had claimed there were 44 phone calls from 'AU' to Chakraborty.
Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shinde faction staged a demonstration in the Vidhan Bhavan complex on Thursday while holding banners which read: "AU kaun hain" (who is AU). Sarnaik demanded an inquiry into the allegations raised by Shewale and to find out who was 'AU'.
Legislators of the ruling dispensation also raised slogans against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal for allegedly insulting Mumbai by calling it the 'Kombdi' (hen) that lays the golden egg.
Bhujbal, a former minister, on Wednesday said he had only used the popular Marathi version of the phrase `to kill the goose that lays the golden egg'.
Meanwhile, members of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi also staged a demonstration in the Vidhan Bhavan complex and again demanded the resignation of CM Shinde over a Nagpur land allotment decision by him as the urban development minister in the previous MVA government. The opposition members have been making the demand for Shinde's resignation since Tuesday.
On Thursday, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajit Pawar, his counterpart in the Council Ambadas Danve, Congress leader Nana Patole, Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator Aaditya Thackeray, NCP's Rohit Pawar and others were part of the demonstration where slogans were also raised alleging corruption in the Nagpur Investment Trust (NIT) land allotment case.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court last week ordered status quo on a decision taken by Shinde, when he was the urban development minister in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, over the allotment of land meant for slum dwellers to private persons.
Danve on Tuesday said the NIT, which comes under the urban development department, had reserved a plot measuring 4.5 acres in the city for the construction of houses for rehabilitation of slum dwellers. "However, Shinde had issued an order to hand over the land parcel to 16 persons at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. The current cost of the land is Rs 83 crore," he had claimed. The CM had denied any wrongdoing and rejected the demand to quit. (PTI)
