Amid growing dispute between BJP and Maharashtra ruling Shiv Sena following the arrest of Union Minister Narayan Rane on Tuesday, the BJP has on Wednesday decided to send 75,000 letters to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to remind him of Independence Day. On Tuesday, the Maharashtra state police had carved a history by arresting Union Minister Narayan Rane, who was the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Rane, who has been serving as the Union Minister for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, had become the first Central Minister to get arrested in twenty years. 

Rane was taken into custody by the police in the coastal Ratnagiri district, where he was travelling as part of the Jan Ashirwad Yatra. On Monday, while speaking in Raigad district, Rane said that Uddhav Thackeray had forgotten the year of Independence during his August 15 address to the people. The Union Minister said, "It is shameful that the Chief Minister does not know the year of Independence and he leaned back to enquire about the count of years of independence during his speech. If I had been there, I would have given him (the Chief Minister) a tight slap."

Rane's threatening remarks that he would slap the Chief Minister had drawn major flak from the cadres of Shiv Sena. However, Rane had on Tuesday defended his remarks against Thackeray and said that he hasn't committed any crime by making them. On the other hand, his remarks against the Chief Minister had sparked protests across the state as the youth wing of Shiv Sena had staged protests in various cities. The cadres of Shiv Sena had slapped the posters of Rane with their footwear in Pune and the Sena workers had ransacked the BJP office in Amaravati and fired the BJP posters in the office in protest against Narayan Rane.

Apart from that, several FIRs were filed against Narayan Rane in various places in Maharashtra and to challenge the FIRs and seek anticipatory bail, Rane had approached the court. However, he didn't get relief after the court had refused to hear Rane's plea as the urgent petition. He was arrested by the police on Tuesday afternoon and after remaining under custody for eight hours, Narayan Rane has got bail with the surety of Rs 15,000 and with the condition to mark his presence at the Mahad police station on August 30 and September 13. 

The BJP unit in Maharashtra had scathingly attacked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for arresting the Union Minister and the BJP said that it will demand a CBI probe into the arrest. Maharashtra BJP MLA Ashish Shelar had on Wednesday claimed that the Chief Minister had on August 15 forgotten how many years has it been since India's Independence and the MLA has said that the BJP has decided to write 75,000 letters to Uddhav Thackeray so that he won't forget the year of Independence. Shelar further said that the party will write 75,000 letters under the leadership of state BJP Chief Chandrakant Patil and send them to the Chief Minister.

Shelar further alleged that state minister Anil Parab is behind the arrest of Narayan Rane and demanded a CBI probe into the arrest. By asking the Maharashtra government why it is scared of BJP's Jan Ashirvaad Yatra, Shelar said that he wants to know whether the Chief Minister will apologise to the people.