UBT faction to observe Traitor Day to mark 1 year of Shinde

Shiv Sena (UBT) members labeled June 20 Gaddar Din (Traitors' Day) and staged rallies all over the state, while the Shinde-led Sena replied by "celebrating" Swabhiman Din (Self-Respect Day). These two factions of the Shiv Sena marked the same day in opposite ways. On June 20 of last year, Shinde divided the Shiv Sena, which had previously been united, to work with the BJP to overthrow the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) administration.

Party members gathered in Aurangabad, Hingoli, Kolhapur, Solapur, and Nashik yelling anti-Shinde and his MLA chants while carrying boxes with the phrase "50 khoke ekdum ok" printed on them.

The Sena (UBT) protests were put down early by the ruling parties. The LT Marg police arrested nine officials, including divisional chief Santosh Shinde and deputy leader of the Thackeray group Arun Dudhwadkar, and force was also deployed in Nagpada to avert any untoward incident.

“We received intelligence about the protests early in the morning, after which we issued notices to some party functionaries to refrain,” said a police officer. “But they decided to go ahead with the protests, and therefore to prevent any law-and-order situation, we detained them. We let them go after an hour with a warning.”

A furious Thackeray group claimed that the Shinde administration had employed a police force to shield itself from criticism. Arvind Sawant, the chief spokesperson, expressed rage over the detention of Dudhwadkar and Shinde and referred to it as government oppression by the police.

Aaditya Thackeray also criticized the Shinde administration harshly.

The world is watching as democracy is being killed in Maharashtra every day,” he said. “Today the police are being used to pick up Shiv Sena office-bearers from their homes and offices only because the leader of the ‘Gaddar Gang’ fears that people will stage political protests against his shameless treachery. Are political protests banned in Maharashtra?” asked Aaditya Thackeray on Twitter while sharing videos of the police forcibly detaining local leaders.