Pawar-Thackeray feud: NCP, Sena workers clash

Police resorted to mild cane-charge to disperse activists of the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party in Pune on Thursday during a demonstration staged by the latter to condemn an editorial in the saffron outfit's mouthpiece that allegedly carried derogatory remarks against Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The trouble started when Sena workers tried to prevent the NCP activists from burning copies of their mouthpiece Saamna at a city square, leading to friction between the two groups and intervention by the police.

According to Nana Wadekar, the Sena Pune unit chief, nearly 25 party workers were detained by police, who used force to disperse the agitators.

The NCP demonstration was in response to the protest staged by Sena workers in Pune on Tuesday, in which an effigy of Pawar was burnt in reaction to his comments on Bal Thackeray, questioning the Sena chief's contribution to the society.

Pawar, a senior NCP leader and nephew of party chief Sharad Pawar, had recently alleged in Ahmednagar that Thackeray was exploiting the emotional appeal associated with the name of Maratha warrior king Shivaji for political mileage.