Shinde Sena faction and NCP MLAs battle it out inside Maha Assembly

By Our Special Correspondent

An altercation broke out outside the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday, August 24, between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction and members of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The NCP MLAs climbed the steps of the assembly holding carrots and raised slogans against the state government.

When Shinde's faction tried to grab the carrots, a fight broke out between them, during which Sena MLA Mahesh Shinde and NCP's Amol Mitkari practically came to blows.

Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders along with members of the Shinde faction staged a protest against former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray, alleging corruption in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A Shinde camp MLA named Bharat Gogawale said that the opposition members should not come near them while the protest continues.

"They started arguing first. When they protested for so many days, we did not intervene," Gogawale was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

However, NCP leader Supriya Sule, addressing Home Minister Amit Shah, said members of the Shinde faction were trying to "intimidate" Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) MLAs.

"Home Minister Amit Shah ji, Shinde MLAs are trying to intimidate MVA MLAs by making violent statements on the premises of Vidhan Bhavan in Maharashtra," she tweeted.

Members of both the factions continued to raise slogans against each other for a while before entering the assembly.The monsoon sessions of the Maharashtra Assembly will end on Thursday, August 25.