Mumbai: Chaos prevailed as an MLA from breakaway Shiv Sena faction of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde came to near blows with a legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on the steps of Maharashtra Assembly building here on Wednesday.
A bitter scuffle ensued between the Shinde faction MLAs and those of the Opposition. As they were busy raising full-throated slogans against each other, pro-Shinde MLA Mahesh Shinde and NCP MLC Amol Mitkari allegedly roughed up each other.
Trouble started when the Shinde faction MLAs tried to snatch carrots from the hands of the NCP MLAs, who were staging a demonstration against the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP coalition. In the melee, MLA Mahesh Shinde virtually came to blows at the steps of the legislature building.
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The day marked heated protests and demonstrations between the ruling and the opposition camps. Prior to the scuffle, the BJP and Shinde faction held a demonstration in the Assembly promises. They raised slogans against former CM Uddhav Thackeray and criticised the latter's previous Government.
The ruling faction also targetted Uddhav's son, carrying banners that read: "Raja stayed indoors due to fear of COVID-19 while friends of the yuvraj looted the treasury." They also targetted alleged corruption in the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and claimed the Thackerays compromised Hindutva for power.
The BJP and Shinde faction MLAs said corruption was rampant in the BMC due to the interference of the Thackerays. Some MLAs however tried to intervene and defuse the tensions between the rival camps.
Confrontations were escalating between the ruling and the opposition camps ever since the Shinde-BJP alliance formed the Government after toppling the Uddhav regime. Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister along with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy in June.
