Fadnavis fires ‘Ghajini’ barb at Thackeray cousins over protest march

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. File photo: @CMOMaharashtra X/ANI Photo

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday (October 4, 2026) said the protest march led by Uddhav and Raj Thackeray in Mumbai was an expression of frustration against the Election Commission after being rejected by the people, and termed the leaders as "Ghajinis".

"The morcha was an attempt to find back their lost ground. Despite all the hype, the attendance at the march was thin," Mr. Fadnavis told reporters on the sidelines of a programme.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and his cousin Raj Thackeray, who heads MNS, led a protest march from the Metro Cinema and traversed the short distance to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in south Mumbai seeking the ouster of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.

Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Vijay Wadettiwar, as well as Jayant Patil, Shashikant Shinde, Jitendra Awhad and Anil Deshmukh of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) participated in the rally.

"They have become like 'Ghajini'. So I want to remind these 'Ghajinis' that Gyanesh Kumar became Chief Election Commissioner in 2025, whereas elections in Maharashtra were held in 2024, and the SIR began in 2026.

Ghajini is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language psychological action thriller where the protagonist loses his memory every 15 minutes.

"How can the SIR of 2026 and the person who became Chief Election Commissioner in 2025 affect the 2024 elections?" said Mr. Fadnavis.

In a dig, he said one should try to sound believable while speaking lies.

"But they are blatantly speaking falsehoods, and when people have rejected them, they vent their frustration here on the Election Commission," he added.

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