Overview
- Uddhav Thackeray, speaking at a journalists' awards event in Mumbai on Saturday, publicly backed senior advocate Prashant Bhushan’s call that the current struggle is for a 'regime change'.
- Thackeray said the BJP-led Centre was stripping people of the right to vote and to protest and accused police of using force against youth and women at recent Delhi demonstrations.
- He mocked reports of a cockroach effigy at Dussehra, urged journalists to remain neutral, and said he will address the Shiv Sena (UBT) Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park on October 20.
- BJP leaders including Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis have accused the opposition of seeking to topple the government outside democratic channels and have pushed back strongly against the 'regime change' framing.
- The remarks build on protests over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of rolls led by groups such as the Cockroach Janta Party, follow the detention and conditional bail of CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, and signal a short-term rise in street and political tensions around upcoming rallies.