Is Chavan SRK's bodyguard, asks Thackeray

In a hard-hitting editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', he asked, "Is Chavan the chief minister of Maharashtra or actor Shah Rukh Khan's bodyguard? If it is the latter, then he should adorn the uniform of a security guard and stand outside Khan's 'Mannat' bungalow here, saluting the passers-by".

"What different work has Chavan done for the last seven-eight days," Thackeray asked and flayed the Chief Minister for "siding with Pak-lover Khan." Thackeray's attack against Chavan comes after the Sena was rebuffed for the second time within a week by Mumbaikars who defied its threat and thronged theatres to see the film.

The Sena had demanded that Khan apologise for his remarks favouring inclusion of Pakistani players in IPL. The Sena had been snubbed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi when he visited Mumbai last week and took the saffron party activists protesting against him by surprise by hopping into a suburban train.

The entire police force has been used as Khan's "slave and domestic help", Thackeray said, referring to the elaborate police deployment and action against Sainiks during the agitation against the film, which opened to packed houses yesterday. "The only thing that remains is to erect a marble memorial for Kasab and his nine dead accomplices and ask policemen to salute it," the Sena chief said.

Thackeray had yesterday accused Chavan of "succumbing to vote-bank politics and deploying tight security with AK-47s to ensure that Khan's film release was smooth." "He arrested thousands of Shiv Sainiks and beat them up till they bled and put them in jail. In the end there was no place remaining in jail. For one Khan, how weak and helpless the Chief Minister has become," he had said.