General Body passes proposal to remove statue of Shivaji guru in face of opposition from BJP, Sena, MNS
General Body passes proposal to remove statue of Shivaji guru in face of opposition from BJP, Sena, MNSu00a0
Over a heated debate in the General Body meeting yesterday, the proposal to remove the statue of Dadoji Konddeo from the Lal Mahal was passed.
The proposal received 54 votes for and 37 against it in the civic house.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which are in a majority in the Pune Municipal Corporation, voted in favour of removing the statue. The statue stood with those of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his mother Jijabai.
It was decided to install a statue of Shahaji Raje in place of Konddeo's.
Shahaji was the father of Shivaji and it was more logical to install his statue with Shivaji and Jijabai, argued Congress and NCP members.
The Congress and NCP are Maratha-heavy parties.
In recent years, Maratha caste supremacists have tried to remove the name of Shivaji's Brahmin guru from the pages of history.
In the meeting, the proposal to remove the Konddeo statue was put forward by Congress corporators Deepak Mankar and NCP corporators Bapu Pathare and Anil Bhosale. BJP corporators Ujwal Keskar and Medha Kulkarni, Shiv Sena MLA Mahadev Babar and corporators Shyam Deshpande opposed and condemned the proposal.
Keskar and Kulkarni said they did not have any objection to the installation of Shahaji Raje's statue, but were opposed to the removal of Konddeo's statue.
"The issue was passed by a majority in the house by the NCP and Congress ruling party," said Kulkarni. "We are going to court and will also agitate against this unjust decision."
Activists of the Sambhaji Brigade, a Maratha-championing organisation that has resorted to violence in the past, were present in the gallery and welcomed the decision.
