Cracks within Maharashtra NDA? Ally Ajit Pawar’s NCP to protest over Shivaji statue collapse

Condemning the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar raised a call for a silent protest, demanding action against the culprits. This points to cracks within the ruling coalition-NDA in Maharashtra and comes days ahead of General Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

NCP president Sunil Tatkare in a statement said, “It is very painful and heart-wrenching that the statue of the great Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj erected at the Rajkot fort in Malvan has crashed. It is shocking that this statue fell in just eight months (after it was inaugurated),” NDTV reported.

Sunil Tatkare alleged that an unforgivable mistake was made. He declared that the party has decided to organize a rally across the state on Thursday, August 29, from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. The silent demonstration will be held in front of the statue of the Maratha warrior to protest against this tragedy and to take precautions to prevent such untoward accidents from happening in the future.

This particular statue of the Maratha warrior was erected by the Navy at Rajkot Fort, in Malvan and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year. The Opposition parties blamed the Eknath Shinde-led Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government alleging it had paid little attention to the quality of work. The 35-foot tall Chhatrapati Shivaji statue installed in Sindhudurg district collapsed around 1:00 PM on Monday, PTI reported citing an official.