Sindhudurg, Aug 28 (IANS): The quaint and picture postcard coastal town of Malvan on Wednesday became an unlikely battleground for a ruckus between the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and ruling MahaYuti workers near the Rajkot Fort where a bronze statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj crashed on August 26.

Top MVA leaders, including Congress' Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Vijay Wadettiwar, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve and Aditya Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (SP)'s Jayant Patil, elected representatives and hundreds of supporters, took out a large procession, carrying saffron flags symbolising the Chhatrapati and ranted slogans against the MahaYuti government alleging graft in the statue construction.

They were countered by a large number of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and MahaYuti activists including ex-union minister Narayan Rane, his son Nilesh Rane and others who shouted slogans against the MVA, as the Malvan town observed a near-total shutdown (bandh).

At one point, when Aditya Thackeray and Wadettiwar attempted to inspect the crash site, scores of MahaYuti workers attempted to stop them, giving a tough time to the police to maintain security in the tense atmosphere, as Thackeray Jr. squatted in protest with Danve and others.

The local police deployed additional armed security for the MVA leaders, especially Thackeray, Danve, Wadettiwar and Patil, and threw a precautionary security ring around Thackeray-Danve at their protest site.

With both sides remaining aggressive and adamant they came into an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation as the security personnel struggled to keep them from lunging at each other.

The MVA side slammed the MahaYuti for alleged corruption in the statue construction that led to the debacle and castigated BJP’s Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis for trying to pass the buck onto the Indian Navy for his failures.

While the MVA demanded to go and view the crash site, Rane and his supporters warned them against entering there and to scoot from the gate of the Rajkot Fort, leading to further full-throated howls from both sides.

The crash of the Chhatrapati statue – now the spot shrouded under a white sheet to prevent gawkers and selfie-seekers – has erupted into a full-fledged political row in the state ahead of the Assembly elections.

As the MahaYuti retreated on the backfoot, the MVA unleashed a severe attack demanding the resignation of CM, filing FIRs against the state and Centre, a SIT probe and other measures.