Shiv Sena women protest Amruta Fadnavis' tweets on CM

Shiv Sena women activists on Tuesday protested against banker and singer Amruta Fadnavis - wife of Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis - for her comments on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Shouting slogans against Amruta Fadnavis, a large group of Sena women gathered around a flex poster with pictures of the Fadnavis couple and battered it with slippers to condemn her comments on the CM on Monday.

Hitting back at the protesters, Amruta Fadnavis tweeted, tagging the CMO: "You don't lead people by hitting (them) over the head, that's assault - not leadership!"

She added: "Dikhao chappal, fenko patthar, Yeh to shauk hai purana aapka; Hum to woh shakhs hai, Ki dhoop me bhi nikhar ayenge!" (Show chappals, pelt stones, it is your old pastime/We are those people, who will bloom even in the sun)."

IANS had first highlighted the controversy on December 23 which became a major topic of discussion in political circles.

Several Sena leaders including MLC and spokesperson Manisha Kayande, Deputy Leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, municipal corporator Amey Ghole, ruling allies Nationalist Congress Party-Congress and others slammed Amruta Fadnavis for her comments attacking Thackeray.

Ghole drew Amruta Fadnavis' comparisons with Anandibai Raghunathrao, the daughter-in-law of Bajirao Peshwa I of the Maratha Empire, and infamous for plotting the 1773 murder of her teenaged nephew, Peshwa Narayanrao, paving the way for her husband to become the next Peshwa. The couple was found guilty of the bloody palace coup later by senior Maratha leader Nana Phadanvis.

Recalling that legend of Maharashtra history, Ghole said that Anandibai was responsible for her husband being labelled a villain and advised Amruta Fadnavis not to forget this chapter in history.

Caught in a tricky situation, Devendra Fadnavis had attempted to walk the tight-rope between his duties as the LOP and his responsibilities as the husband by pointing out how some political workers "stooped very low" to troll his wife.

"She is an independent personality in her own right. She takes her own decisions and does whatever she wants for which she faces the consequences," Fadnavis said here late on Monday night.

Asked to comment on the ex-CM's wife targeting Thackeray again on Tuessday, Kayande merely said that "Amruta Fadnavis seems to be equatin herself with the CM", and spoiling her and her husband's image in the process.

Earlier on Tuesday, former BJP minister Ashish Shelar had sought to defend Amruta Fadnavis.

"A man speaking against the government was brutally beaten and tonsured. A woman (referring to Amruta Fadnavis) commenting against the government was insulted. Sharad Pawar Saheb, now don't you find any 'intolerance'? Hon' CM, are Hindus safe in this state now? Or will Hindus and women they have to bear such slurs henceforth?" Shelar said in a tweet.IANS