On April 23, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya’s car was attacked as his car passed through the Khar Police station in Mumbai. Somaiya was on his way to meet the Rana couple who was locked inside the Khar Police station for planning to chant Hanuman Chalisa in front of CM Uddhav Thackeray’s home Matoshree. Shiv Sena leader Dipali Sayyed has now commented that even Modi would not have been spared if he had challenged Matoshree the way Kirit Somaiya did.
“Balasaheb (Thackeray) has taught us – The one who challenges should be broken. Had there been Modiji’s car around that time, then that would have been attacked too,” asserted Shiv Sena leader Dipali Sayyed while talking to the media on Tuesday. Sayyed was seen complaining about MP Navneet Rana and MLA Ravi Rana’s designs to chant Hanuman Chalisa as a protest in front of Matoshree. She justified the attack on BJP leader Kirit Somaiya by Shiv Sena leaders as a way Shiv Sena plays its game. She reiterated her previous comment that the Ranas are Modi’s monkeys who have suddenly descended upon in Maharashtra.
“There was no restriction to recite Hanuman Chalisa anywhere. But the proposition to do it in front of Matoshree was wrong,” Sayyed said. She alleged that the BJP wants to disturb the law and order situation because it wants to enforce President’s rule in the state.
Attack on Kirit Somaiya
On Sunday, when the BJP leader was in his way to meet Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana who were booked under sedition charges in the jail, his car was attacked by Shiv Sena leaders with stones. Somaiya posted a video on Twitter where he had blood on his face. On the attack, he said, “This is the third time Uddhav Thackeray’s goons tried to kill me, first at Vashim than Pune and now at Police Station (Khar, Mumbai) itself.”
It is to be noted that Dipali Bhonsle nee Sofia Jahangir Sayyed started off as a Marathi film actress and joined the Shiv Sena in 2019. She contested against NCP’s Jitendra Awhad in the 2019 assembly elections from the Muslim-dominated Mumbra-Kalwa constituency in Mumbai and lost with heavy margins. Her open target against PM Narendra Modi has sparked wide criticism in the political annals of Maharashtra.