Vandalism at Harshwardhan Jadhav's Aurangabad residence

Aurangabad: Within hours of his objectionable remarks against Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, controversial former MLA Harshwardhan Jadhav’s residence in Aurangabad was pelted with stones by unidentified persons in the early hours of Thursday. One vehicle was damaged in the incident.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, the Kannad MLA has pointed his finger at the Shiv Sena men.

“It was cowardly to attack my house at night. My family stays in the Aurangabad residence and they could have been injured,” Jadhav told reporters.

The police, meanwhile, have registered a non-cognizable offence against unidentified persons in connection with the incident. While Jadhav was not at home in the Samarth Nagar area, when the stone-pelting took place at around 1 am, his wife and son were. The police said an inquiry is on.

Jadhav, who is contesting the assembly election from Kannad, had made some objectionable remarks against the Shiv Sena chief — in the context of rebel Congress leader Abdul Sattar — while addressing a rally at Chincholi village on Tuesday. The video of his speech became viral the next day, prompting angry reactions from the local Shiv Sena unit.

A delegation led by former MP Chandrakant Khaire and Raju Vaidya also met the election officials on Wednesday and presented a memorandum seeking Jadhav’s disqualification from the poll due to his objectionable remark.

Jadhav, who is the son-in-law of senior BJP leader Raosaheb Danve, is battling against the Sena-BJP and NCP-Congress alliances from Kannad. After ditching the Sena ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Jadhav floated his own Shivswaraj Bahujan Paksh (SBP) and contested the general election against the then sitting MP of the saffron party from the Aurangabad seat. Rebel Jadhav bagged the third position by securing over 2.8 lakh votes, which, in turn, reflected in Khaire's defeat at the hands of MIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel by a slender margin of about 4,400 votes.