Leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on Sunday held a march from the iconic Hutatma Chowk to Gateway of India in south Mumbai to protest against the collapse of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district.
The statue of the 17th century Maratha warrior king at Rajkot fort in Malvan tehsil, some 480 kilometres from here, fell on August 26. It was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 4, 2023, on Navy Day.
NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, Congress state unit chief Nana Patole and the party’s Mumbai head Varsha Gaikwad began the protest march by laying wreaths at Hutatma Chowk, a memorial to those martyred in the ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’ agitation.
The protest march is to give voice to the anger of the people of Maharashtra over the statue collapsing just eight months after it was unveiled by the PM, said NCP (SP) leader Rajesh Tope and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sunil Prabhu.