MUMBAI, July 15 -- The attack on Sambhaji Brigade's founding member Pravin Gaikwad on Sunday by BJP office-bearer Deepak Kate and other people affiliated to the Shivdharma Foundation in Akkalkot, Solapur, has evoked strong reactions from Maratha outfits. Gaikwad was assaulted for making allegedly derogatory remarks about Swami Samarth Maharaj and also for not changing the name of his outfit to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Brigade. While opposition parties, which demanded strong action against the attackers, raised the issue in the state legislature on Monday, the Maratha outfits held a joint meeting in Pune. Shrikant Shirole, a Maratha leader, said that a committee would be formed to decide the further course of action. Virendra Pawar, coordinator of the Sakal Maratha Samaj, said this was an attack on all Maratha organisations and Marathas, "carried out with the intention of diverting attention from key issues". Maratha Seva Sangh president Purushottam Khedekar, on his part, lambasted the RSS. "The RSS tries to corrupt society's brains, and the attack on Gaikwad was part of the design," he said. "We will have to retaliate unitedly." Gaikwad was pulled out of his car and manhandled by Deepak Kate when he reached Akkalkot to attend a function. Gaikwad said that people with progressive thoughts were living under threat since 2014. "Activists with a secular ideology are insecure today, but we follow the ideology aligned with the Constitution," he said. "This was a planned attack, and the state government is responsible for it. The prime accused in my case is facing 10 serious cases, and even yesterday's attack was similar to an attempt to murder. Despite this, he is being shielded by the state government. The police are being directed to go soft on him." Revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the BJP would not stoop to this level. "Deepak Kate is our office-bearer but what he did is not justifiable, and action should be taken against him," he said after a video of Kate with him went viral. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the police had arrested the accused though Gaikwad was not willing to make a formal complaint. "Strict action will be taken against the accused under the applicable laws," he said. The attack on Gaikwad is also seen as an attempt to consolidate non-Marathas before the upcoming local body polls. "A certain community harboured anger against Sambhaji Brigade after it vandalised the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune in 2004, where American scholar James Laine researched his book on Shivaji," said an opposition leader. "Sunday's attack, planned to pit the two communities against each other, could be part of the political consolidation plan."...