A public Ganesh mandal in Kalyan refused to install the idol and perform puja after the police removed pandal decorations designed on the theme of the ‘split’ in the Shiv Sena, said a local Shiv Sena leader.Our Vijay Tarun Mandal has been celebrating Ganesh festival for 59 years. We chose a theme based on the burning topic of the year. This year, we had chosen the political theme where we had shown Shiv Sena as an age-old tree which cannot be uprooted even if few branches are cut or fruits are snatched,” said Shiv Sena leader Vijay Salvi, who is known to be a loyalist of Uddhav Thackeray.
Hundreds of police personnel removed the pandal set in the wee hours of August 31 and registered a case against Salvi under Section 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code.Thereafter, the mandal in Kalyan’s Rambaug area decided that it will not install the Ganesh idol and has now approached the Bombay High Court against the police action. Notably, Kalyan is one of the strongholds of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his son Shrikant Shinde, who is a member of Lok Sabha from Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency.“We had served notice to him. The design of the set was objectionable and it would have incited conflict between two groups. Therefore, we had to take action and remove the design,” said Sachin Gunjal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III) of Thane police.“We worked to ensure that law and order is maintained,” he added.Salvi has claimed that the action against him and the mandal was politically motivated. “Hundreds of police personnel were sent to stop us from displaying our set. We were treated like terrorists… I was woken up in the middle of the night. Are we not even allowed to criticise anyone? Why is the government so scared of criticism?” he asked. The court is likely to hear the writ petition filed by Salvi today.