Nagpur: Sameet Thakkar, whose tweet against chief minister Uddhav Thackrey had led to his arrest in October, is back in action. In a tweet, Thakkar, a BJP sympathizer, has asked Thackrey to fulfil his late father and Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s dream and rename Aurangabad city as Sambhajinagar.
In 2019, the same demand had been made by a Shiv Sena leader, targeting the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for ignoring the renaming demand.
The city in Marathwada that has been named after Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was also the place where Maratha king Sambhaji was held captive by the former’s troops before being executed in New Delhi. Shiv Sena had raised the renaming demand in the 1990s too.
In one of his earlier tweets, that had led to a controversy, Thakkar had called the chief minister modern day Aurangzeb.
Thakkar’s recent tweet says, “I called @officeofUT Modern Day Aurangzeb, for which his party has filed a case against me. Now that Aurangabad corporation is going to the polls, I hereby announce that I will apologize to the CM, if he fulfils late Balasaheb Thackerayji’s wish of renaming Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar.”
The tweet has received 2,895 retweets and 13.8k likes. It was also retweeted by former MLA and energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who is from Nagpur.
Even as Sameet did not come forward, his brother Rishi spoke on his behalf, saying this was his first tweet related to Thackeray after his release on bail. “Sameet was arrested from Rajkot on October 24 and released on bail after 20 days. He was kept in custody both at Mumbai and Nagpur,” said Rishi.
Rishi said it has been reported by a certain television channel that the Aurangabad civic body polls are due sometime in February. The development prompted him to come up with his recent tweet, reminding the chief minister about his late father’s wish.
He alleged that Sameet was ill-treated by the police during custody, for which a case has been filed in the National Human Rights Commission. It is due to be listed in the coming week, said Rishi.
Raising the issue at the time of polls may have its impact on the MVA alliance. If Shiv Sena backs renaming, it may not be comfortable for its new allies NCP and Congress.
On December 25, Sameet had tweeted, “If I am alive, surviving the ruling class mob attack which wanted me to be eliminated, then it all is because of Manoj Kotak, I pray for his long healthy life on his birthday.”
Kotak, the person whom Sameet thanked, is BJP Member of Parliament from Mumbai-North East.
Sameet has also tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.