On May 1, all roads led to the Hutatma Chowk, as politicians and citizens gathered to pay their tributes to the 105 martyrs of the Maharashtra Samyukta Samiti who sacrificed their lives for the creation of a separate state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray and his wife Sharmila, mayor Shubha Raul were among the politicians who offered flowers at the Hutatma Chowk atop which stands the statue of a peasant and a labourer holding a flame symbolizing the fight of the oppressed classes. May 1 being International Labour Day, Hutatma Chowk also witnessed a protest by around 300 textile mill workers belonging to various workers’ unions who demanded employment and housing facilities for them and their children.
