Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar's workers reached the MNS front, the minister of Shinde faction was chased away by the crowd:

News Topical, Digital Desk : MNS Rally: Raj Thackeray's party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) took out a rally in Mira Road of Thane district on Tuesday (July 8). Recently, MNS workers had beaten up a shopkeeper in Mira Road for not speaking Marathi. Local traders took out a rally to protest against this. Now, today a rally was organised by MNS and other Marathi supporting groups under the leadership of Marathi Ekta Samiti to protest against this.

Workers of Uddhav Thackeray's party Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar's party NCP (SP) also joined the MNS march. During this, there was a lot of uproar. The police took many workers into custody. The police had refused to give permission for the protest march citing a possible threat to law and order.

Workers chased the minister away
Meanwhile, in the afternoon, angry protesters surrounded Eknath Shinde 's Shiv Sena minister Pratap Sarnaik at the protest site and chased him away. Wearing flags and white caps with Marathi slogans written on them, he walked on the streets of Mira Road and adjacent Bhayander.

Earlier, several MNS functionaries were detained since midnight. Pictures were shown of women being loaded into police vans while they were raising slogans against police highhandedness. Several activists were detained inside a banquet hall to prevent them from reaching the protest site.

What did the CM say?
Amidst the controversy, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that permission was given for the rally, but MNS insisted on a particular route, which created a law and order challenge. If they had asked for permission for the proper route, we would have given permission.

What did Pratap Sarnaik say?
Seeing the growing support for the Marathi issue, Shiv Sena minister Pratap Sarnaik criticized the police. He said, "The police action was completely wrong. The government has not issued any such instructions to suppress the peaceful march in support of Marathi interests. He will discuss this matter with the Chief Minister."

He said that such attitude of the police is inappropriate and if Marathi speaking people had sought permission for a peaceful march, then the police should have allowed them.

Earlier he had said, "Marathi Ekta Samiti and many other organizations had applied for the rally, but they were not given permission. I am going - if the police have the courage, they can arrest me."