Sena attacks Maha govt on failure to arrest Pansare's murderers

Firing a fresh salvo against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, Shiv Sena on Monday said nothing has changed in Maharashtra despite change of regime and ridiculed the Devendra Fadnavis government over the failure to arrest killers of communist leader Govind Pansare.

In a veiled attack on the chief minister, an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece said: “What has changed with the new government? If someone knows please tell us.”

The Sena ridiculed the state government over failure to arrest the killers of the anti-toll tax campaigner, who died on Friday after being shot at in Kolhapur.

“This is a repeat of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's murder,” the Sena said.

“The Chief Minister and the government have changed but the system is the same. People are asking for the Chief Minister's resignation as he is the Home Minister,” it said.

“Fadnavis said if police put in all their might they may catch the killers,” the Sena said, adding the remarks tantamount to distrust of police.

The latest remarks indicate the unease in the BJP-Sena alliance.  After BJP snapped the 25-year alliance ahead of October 15 assembly polls, Sena joined the government on December 5 as the BJP with 122 MLAs did not have a clear majority in the 288-member house.