Mumbai, Sep 25 - A day after he was refused a ticket to contest the Maharashtra assembly polls, senior Shiv Sena leader Sada Sarvankar Friday pointed an accusing finger at party executive president Uddhav Thackeray for allegedly ordering the attack on former speaker Manohar Joshi's residence last Sunday.
Sarvankar, a Shiv Sena legislator who joined the Congress Thursday, told mediapersons Friday afternoon that when he asked Thackeray about the status of his nomination, the latter said Joshi had removed his name from the list of candidates.
'At that time, Uddhav told me to immediately do whatever I could. At that time, party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut was also present,' said Sarvankar. He filed his nomination as a Congress candidate from Mahim Friday afternoon.
'At his instance, my men had no option but to go and attack Joshi's residence,' he added.
Last Sunday, angry Shiv Sena activists attacked Joshi's Dadar home at Oceana Building in the posh Shivaji Park, raising slogans and pelting stones.
They had damaged a vehicle in the building compound belonging to a member of the Joshi family.
The violence came amid reports that Sarvankar was being replaced by Vaidya from the Dadar constituency, Joshi's traditional stronghold.
Unable to conceal his hurt feelings at being denied a nomination that was given to former Mumbai mayor Milind Vaidya, Sarvankar said he sacrificed a lot for the Shiv Sena but it did not care to accommodate him.