Overview
- Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan said the party sees Marathi as a broad, plural identity spanning language, culture and tradition.
- He made the pitch a day before voting for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and 28 other civic bodies in Maharashtra.
- Chavan accused Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS of negative, divisive rhetoric on Marathi and urged rivals not to turn the language into a "poison nectar game."
- Opposition parties have centered their BMC campaign on Marathi identity, warning of Maharashtrian marginalisation if the BJP wins.
- Chavan cited BJP-linked cultural credentials — RSS lineage and icons like Ambedkar, Savarkar and Bal Thackeray — and claimed credit for Marathi’s classical-language recognition and early Gudi Padwa processions, while referencing last year’s revoked move to start Hindi from Class I.