Shivaji-Tipu remark row: MPCC chief Harshwardhan Sapkal in Wardha, accuses BJP of twisting remarks to ‘trigger riots’

Cong Leader Says Statement Distorted To Divert Attention From Core Issues; Demands Action Over Pune Violence

NAGPUR/WARDHA: Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal on Sunday accused BJP of deliberately distorting his remarks on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Tipu Sultan to inflame communal tensions and divert attention from pressing national and state issues.


“My statement was twisted to engineer riots in the state. The evidence of that was seen in Pune today,” Sapkal told reporters in Wardha, responding to the escalating political controversy. He alleged BJP was attempting to give a Hindu–Muslim colour to his comments while ignoring substantive concerns, including international trade negotiations and references to “Epstein files” allegedly involving BJP leaders.

The MPCC chief clarified his original response came to a question on whether portraits of historical figures, including Shivaji Maharaj and Tipu Sultan, should be displayed together in offices amid rising political use of iconic personalities. “Mahapurush are being used for politics and hatred is being spread. I was answering a question in that context,” he said.

Sapkal accused the chief minister of selectively amplifying his statement. “When I compared Fadnavis to Ghazni, he had said he did not know who I was. But now he is vehemently taking my name,” Sapkal said, adding introducing caste and religion into every issue was the BJP’s “old formula”.

He alleged BJP workers in Pune attacked the Congress office, pelted stones, and assaulted women party workers and journalists in the presence of police. “This hooliganism is strongly condemned,” he said, demanding immediate criminal cases and arrests against those he named as instigators.

Sapkal also questioned BJP’s stance on Tipu Sultan, asking how the party used Tipu’s photographs on banners during recent municipal elections and allied with the AIMIM in 21 locations, including Amravati and Chandrapur. “Does that become acceptable then?” he asked.

Referring to past remarks by noted freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and former Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari about Shivaji Maharaj, Sapkal asked whether BJP would launch similar protests. “Will they burn their effigies as well?” he said.