mumbai the political temperature in maharashtra has soared in the last fortnight over protests against movies on chhatrapati shivaji maharaj and controversial remarks made on him by governor bhagat singh koshyari bharatiya janta party bjp national spokesperson sudhanshu trivedi also faced a flak for insulting shivaji maharaj during a television debate on saturday koshyari stoked a controversy by saying at a function in aurangabad that chhatrapati shivaji maharaj was an icon of olden days his comments triggered a political storm in maharashtra with activists of the opposition nationalist congress party ncp the congress the shiv sena uddhav balasaheb thackeray and other outfits staging protests against the remarks deemed as an insult to the 17th century maratha warrior king and also the state and called for koshyaris ouster from the raj bhavan even the ruling bjp disapproved of the governors remarks deputy chief minister devendra fadnavis a senior bjp leader one thing is clear chhatrapati shivaji maharaj will remain a hero and idol of maharashtra and our country till the sun and the moon exist even koshyari had no doubts about this in his mind thus there are various meanings derived from the remarks made by the governor maharashtra bjp president chandrashekhar bawankule said the governor should not have compared union minister nitin gadkari and ncp chief sharad pawar with the legendary maratha warrior king sanjay gaikwad an mla from the shiv sena faction led by chief minister eknath shinde an ally of the bjp went one step further and demanded that the governor be shifted out of the state for the controversial remarks earlier when you would be asked who your icon is jawaharlal nehru subhas chandra bose and mahatma gandhi used to be the answers in maharashtra you need not look elsewhere as there are so many icons here while chhatrapati shivaji maharaj is of olden time there are ambedkar and nitin gadkari the governor had said reacting to the comments the pawarled party accused him of demeaning maharashtra while sanjay raut a key leader of the shiv sena ubt asked the bjp to spell out its stand on koshyaris insult of shivaji maharaj and the state born in 1630 chhatrapati shivaji maharaj is a deeply revered figure in maharashtra and remains a rallying point for all major political parties in the state more than three centuries after his death the political furore over koshyaris comments came days after alleged misrepresentation of the 17th century ruler in movies earlier this month supporters of ncp leader jitendra awhad allegedly stormed a theatre in adjoining thane to stop the screening of just released marathi movie har har mahadev awhad a former minister alleged the movie distorts the warrior kings history he was later arrested by the police for allegedly assaulting a businessman who had come to watch the movie the raj thackerayled maharashtra navnirman sena mns jumped into the controversy and came out in support of the movie last week rajya sabha mp sambhaji chhatrapat a descendant of