Maha Shiv Sena Minister, MLA in verbal tiff in legislature complex 

Mumbai, March 1 (IANS) Embarrassing the MahaYuti government, a ruling Shiv Sena minister and a legislator had a heated argument in the Maharashtra Legislature complex on the final day of the five-day Budget Session, here on Friday.  

They were PWD Minister Dadaji Bhuse, representing the Malegaon Outer seat, and Mahendra Thorve, MLA from Karjat in Raigad district. The argument was ostensibly pertaining to some constituency related works of the latter.

As the decibel levels seemed to escalate, another Minister Sbambhuraj Desai and Shiv Sena's Chief Whip Bharat Gogavale, rushed to intervene and defuse the crisis.

The incident occurred when Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was entering the Legislature building along with other legislators, and refused to answer media queries on the issue.

However, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders termed it as a 'serious issue', and even referred to the recent incident when a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Ganpat Gaikwad from Thane shot at a Shiv Sena leader Mahesh Gaikwad and his associate, and later a Shiv Sena (UBT) ex-Corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar was killed by a goon at his office in Borivali during a live Facebook show.

Later, both Bhuse and Thorve claimed that nothing as contended happened as they were only discussing developmental works related to the latter's constituency before the 2024 Parliament elections were announced, while Desai said that the issue was resolved amicably.

Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, an ex-CM and Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Vijay Wadettiwar wanted to know if the CCTV footage of the ruckus was available, and NCP (SP) President Jayant Patil and National General Secretary Dr. Jitendra Awhad also expressed concerns, saying the police would need to be deployed evening inside the legislature complex.

The SS (UBT) Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve also termed it as a serious matter, and the house was adjourned for an hour, though ruling Shiv Sena leaders termed it was a 'non-issue'.

--IANS

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