Storm over Sanjay Raut's Satara lineage remark

MUMBAI: The BJP on Wednesday said Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had insulted the family of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the Satara throne.
The BJP was responding to a TV interview in which Raut asked Udayanraje Bhosale of the BJP to prove his lineage; Bhosale is a descendant of Maratha kingdom founder Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
There were calls for a bandh in Bhosale's hometown Satara on Thursday.
Raut made his comments during an interview with a Marathi news channel in Pune. BJP state unit president Chandrakant Patil demanded that CM Uddhav Thackeray, who is the Shiv Sena president, should make clear whether he agreed with Raut's statement.
"If not, he must take action against Raut for the statement," he said. "Only then will people accept he is not for such statements."
He said Raut's comments were an insult that would not be tolerated by the BJP and the people of the state.
"The Sena no longer has the moral right to take Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's name and must apologise for the insult," he said. "The party has come to power through betrayal and power has gone to its head."