BJP, Sena in Maha raise visuals of each other with Tiger Memon's kin

Mumbai: The BJP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra entered an exchange feat on Saturday, inciting a row after both came up with each other's visuals with the relative of absconding terror accused Mushtaq Abdul Razzak alias Tiger Memon, IANS reported.

First, BJP came up with a viral video featuring one Rauf Memon, the cousin of the dreaded Tiger Memon and his executed brother Yakub with Shiv Sena's Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar.

BJP used the video to come down on Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray over the renovation of the grave of the hanged terror convict Yakub Memon.

However, Shiv Sena slapped back by circulating an undated photo of the same Rauf Memon with BJP's current Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and present Minister Chandrakant Patil. The party accused BJP of defaming it.

Congress also didn't choose to miss the opportunity. Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant tweeted a couple of images featuring Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari felicitating Rauf Memon, and he asked, "Is it the same Rauf Memon?"

A couple of days ago, an exchange broke out between BJP and Sena over the alleged makeover of Yakub Memon's (hanged in 2015) grave in Bada Qabrastan in south Mumbai.

Pednekar said, "I had not gone to the grave as portrayed, but had visited a mosque... Anybody could have shot that video... The BJP is trying to defame us at every step and linking everything to Uddhav Thackeray Saheb,"

She and Thackeray's Spokesperson Harshal Pradhan also flashed a Rauf Memon's photo with the Fadnavis-Patil duo, and Pednekar dared the BJP - which keeps attacking others on flimsy issues - to explain it, even as other BJP leaders like Pravin Darekar and Atul Bhatkhalkar attacked her.

Though Fadnavis had promptly ordered a probe into the Yakub Memon grave refurbishing controversy on Thursday, other BJP leaders are now demanding investigations into the mafia links of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government's leaders.