MVA’s rally vs BJP-Sena’s ‘Savarkar yatra’ today after Aurangabad clashes

All eyes will be on Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, formerly Aurangabad, as a rally by the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the ‘Savarkar Gaurav Yatra’ by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena will be organised on Sunday, just days after Marathwada’s largest city saw rioting and arson.

The BJP also dared Uddhav Thackeray to snap ties with the Congress for insulting Savarkar.

Top points on MVA rally and Savarkar Gaurav Yatra:

1. The MVA rally will be held on Sunday evening at Marathwada Sanskrutik Mandal ground, with speakers being led by Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole.

2. In a video released on Twitter, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve asked his party workers to assemble for the rally calmly and peacefully as there may be an attempt to cause friction among communities.

3. The BJP’s ‘Savarkar Gaurav Yatra’ will begin from a chowk named after the late Hindutva ideologue, which is just a kilometre away from the MVA rally site.

4. The BJP march in honour of Savarkar and to oppose routine attacks on him by the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi will cover all three assembly seats in the city and culminate at Ahilyabai Holkar Chowk.

5. The intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday saw rioting and arson in the city’s Kiradpura area amid Ram Navami, leaving one person dead, several policemen injured and property, including vehicles, damaged and set on fire.

6. The special investigation team (SIT) formed by Sambhaji Nagar police commissioner Nikhil Gupta arrested four more accused in the rioting case—Imran Khan Bismillah Khan, Syed Kalim Syed Salim, Karim Salim Shaikh and Anwar Khan Kadar Khan—and presented them before the court, which remanded them to police custody till April 3. The total number of arrests in the case has reached 12.