A Kalyan police on Wednesday seized an objectionable and provocative decoration material related to a recent split in Shiv-Sena at Vijay Tarun Mandal a Ganesh mandal at Kalyan in Thane district.
The police have also seized the cutouts put out as the decoration display for the ten-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival, which began on Wednesday.
Vijay Salvi, Vijay Tarun Mandal president, said, " The action by the police was unwarranted and amounted to autocracy. Every year we display various topics at our pandal, and this year's theme was the split in Shiv-Sena. The police action is a display of 'Hitlersahi' and, as a mark of protest, we will not be celebrating the Ganesh festival this year."
Soon after the action, a group of Shiv-Sainiks, including local leaders and office-bearers, performed a "Maha Aarti" against the police action.
Vijay Tarun Mandal has been celebrating the festival for the last 58 years.
Salvi said, "We had shown the decorative display to the police earlier and they had asked us to make certain changes. We followed their directions, but at the last moment, they took the action without informing us."
A police official from Kalyan police station said, "It's not new that the Vijay Tarun Mandal is involved in such provocative and objectionable themes, which can really make the law and order situations worrisome this year, but in the past too, his mandals have been indulged in provocative and objectionable decorations. We have registered a case against the officials of the Vijay Tarun Mandal."
Earlier, a senior Shiv-Sena leader, Eknath Shinde, and 39 MLAs had rebelled against the party leadership in June, leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, and now Shinde has become the chief minister of Maharashtra with the help of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
