Shivaji Maharaj at the epicentre as battle for votes begins in Maharashtra
Ahead of Maharashtra elections, Chhatrapati Shivaji's legacy is a key political issue, with parties unveiling statues amid delays in a proposed memorial project
MUMBAI: In the run-up to the Maharashtra assembly elections, Chhatrapati Shivaji has become the pivot for every political party looking for votes. A day after Rahul Gandhi inaugurated a statue of the Maratha king at Kasaba Bawada in Kolhapur, Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, a Shivaji descendent who has formed his own political outfit ‘Maharashtra Swarajya Paksh’ to contest the polls, held a rally and also visited the spot off the Arabian Sea where an equestrian statue of Shivaji was proposed a few years ago.
The jal pujan ceremony of the proposed Shivaji memorial was done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2016. In the last eight years, there has been no significant development on the project, which has led Sambhajiraje to take on the Mahayuti government.
Sambhajiraje, who once was a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, attempted to inspect the proposed site by going into the Arabian Sea. Since boats are not allowed there, he used binoculars to see if any work was in progress. “I couldn’t see the memorial,” Sambhajiraje said in a veiled attack on the ruling parties whom he accused of using Shivaji for their political benefit. “Don’t play games. It has been eight years. When the prime minister of the country came, all permissions were in; would PM Modi be invited without them?”
The politically ambitious Sambhajiraje, after forming his own political outfit, decided to take up the delay in the Shivaji memorial as the first major issue in the run-up to the assembly polls even while declaring that he would not allow Shivaji’s name “to be used for politics” in this election.
Shivaji Maharaj’s name has always been part of the electoral politics of Maharashtra. In 2014, the BJP had started its Maharashtra campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from Raigad Fort. The BJP’s then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi visited the fort on January 5, 2014. In the run-up to the 2019 elections, the undivided NCP kickstarted two statewide tours, one from Raigad Fort in January where Shivaji was coronated and another from Junnar near Pune in August, which houses Shivneri fort, his birthplace. In the run-up to these elections as well, state NCP chief Jayant Patil kicked off a ‘Shiv Swarajya Yatra’ from Shivneri Fort on August 9.
Shivaji’s name was also dragged into a controversy after a statue of his constructed in December 2023 in Sindhudurg collapsed, bringing in severe criticism for the Eknath Shinde-led government and triggering leaders across political parties to do something or the other in the name of the Maratha king.
On October 3, Sambhajiraje himself inaugurated a grand statue of Shivaji Maharaj in Roha in Raigad. It was constructed by the Roha municipal council controlled by Raigad MP Sunil Tatkare of the NCP. On September 29, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray unveiled a Shivaji statue at Kalmeshwar in Nagpur district. On August 30, another statue was inaugurated by chief minister Eknath Shinde.
The construction work for the proposed Shivaji memorial off the Mumbai coast was halted by the state government in January 2019 after the Supreme Court ordered a stay in response to a petition filed by environmentalists. Referring to this, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis blamed the Congress for the delay. He said, “An advocate, who campaigns for the Congress, has approached the Supreme Court and brought a stay on the project. Sambhajiraje should condemn them as well. We are fighting the case in the apex court and will get permission.”
The project envisages a 210-metre-tall statue of the Maratha warrior king on a small rocky island located 3.5 km off the Mumbai coast at an estimated expenditure of ₹3,600 crore.
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