India, March 27 -- One of the little-known facts about Maharashtra's poker-faced deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde is that he has a great sense of humour and is always up for a good joke.

As for his partymen vandalising the Mumbai venue where satirist Kunal Kamra shot his latest video lampooning a whole lot of worthies, including him, Shinde told the BBC: "I don't condone vandalism but my karyakartas (party workers) have feelings and for (certain) actions, there are reactions."

In the shifting sands of Maharashtra politics, Eknath Shinde has used the two minutes of Kunal Kamra's over 45-minute-long comedy special 'Naya Bharat,' and the vandalism his party unleashed, to cement his position as the true claimant of Balasaheb Thackeray's ...