Mumbai, Aug 24 (IANS): The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) staged huge protests across Maharashtra – in pouring rains in many parts – demanding security for women and the implementation of the shakti criminal laws, passed by the MVA regime in December 2021, here on Saturday.

The protests were led by MVA partners Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SP), Shiv Sena (UBT) and other smaller allies with the participation of a huge number of activists, women and commoners in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Kolhapur, Nagpur, other cities, towns and districts.

Top MVA leaders like Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar, Ambadas Danve, Supriya Sule, Jitendra Awhad, Anil Deshmukh, Yashomati Thakur, Balasaheb Thorat, M. Arif Naseem Khan, Varsha Gaikwad, MPs, legislators, plus other party bigwigs with women activists joining in a big way at most venues.

The protestors sported black bands on their mouths, arms, and wrists and carried black flags and posters-placards demanding justice for the two nursery girls in Badlapur (Thane) and stopping the crimes and atrocities against women in the state.

They raised slogans flaying the ruling MahaYuti government and demanded the resignations of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar for the collapse of the law-and-order state in the state with the continuing violence against women, girls and even tiny-tots.

The MVA had originally given a call for a ‘Maharashtra Bandh’ (shutdown), but after the Bombay High Court put brakes on it yesterday, it was converted to a silent agitation against the MahaYuti regime.

“The government had realised that our MVA shutdown would be a success… So it has been stopped through the legal route. The bandh was not political but to highlight the plight of our mothers, sisters and daughters, the fear in the minds of the people when their womenfolk step out to schools, colleges, hospitals, workplaces,” roared Thackeray in a brief address near Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar.

Sharad Pawar and Sule also called upon the government to ensure the safety and security of all women in the state and administered a pledge to the gathering that they would also work for the safety of the womenfolk at individual and societal levels.

They said that Fadnavis is going around Maharashtra promoting the ‘Ladki Bahin Scheme’, but in his hometown Nagpur, the women are vulnerable.

“If the state Home Minister (Fadnavis) cannot ensure the safety of the mothers and sisters in his own district, then how will he provide security to the women of the entire state? The incompetent Fadnavis must resign,” the NCP (SP) said in a chorus.

Patole demanded that the people don’t want doles in the name of ‘Ladki Bahin’ but want ‘security’ for our mothers-sisters-daughters and demanded justice for all the victims of rapes that have come up in recent weeks.

Wadettiwar said that the MahaYuti is attempting to suppress violent crimes against women that have occurred in Badlapur, Jalgaon, Nashik, Akola and other places, demanded all should be transferred to fast-track courts and the death sentence should be given besides implementing the stringent Shakti Act which stipulated death penalty for all types of rapes.